Welcome to Twlight
by vaporeon13204
Summary: Most of us enjoy reading the vampire fiction that is Twilight. However, what if it turned out that it wasn’t as purely fiction based as we all thought? Original Characters. Rated T, just in case.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Most of us enjoy reading the vampire fiction that is Twilight. However, what if it turned out that it wasn't as purely fiction based as we all thought?

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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I let out a sigh as I lay stretched across my bed, utterly bored. My mom was out of town, my dad was at work, and my friends were all busy. So, there I was with absolutely _nothing_ to do. Even my online friends seemed to have more active lives than I did, for they were all _off_line. I had spent the morning reading Twilight fics on my laptop, but even that grew old after a while. _Hmm, even as bored as I am right now though, I'd still rather have more time left of summer vacation… _I thought as I stared up at the ceiling. I had only just graduated high school a few months back, and now the start of college life drew ever nearer. Fun. _I still have no idea how I'm going to manage those twenty page papers. It kills me just to write __two__. My lazy streak is going to end up killing me. _

I rolled my eyes when I heard the birds flapping around in their cages from the living room. The dogs followed suite with a lot of barking. I suppose you could say that we were a bit of animal lovers. We have two miniature pinchers, two cockatiels, and eight finches. People always seemed shocked whenever I mentioned that we owned ten birds, but it honestly wasn't as bad as it sounded. After all, the finches were really tiny and all shared their own cage, so they didn't really count that much. The only mildly annoying part was just how much seed they went through in a weak. You wouldn't expect such tiny little creatures to be able to eat so much. _I guess dad's home, _I thought to myself, hearing the alarm chirp twice as the front door opened and closed. _Oops, I forgot to turn the alarm back on after letting the dogs out this morning. Crap, I'm going to be in trouble for that._

I sat up on my bed and checked myself over briefly in the mirror before leaving my room. I wasn't exactly what one might consider attractive. At least, I didn't see myself that way. My hair was _ok_, shoulder-length, wavy, thick, and dark brown. I have a light olive complexion that was in dire need of a tan, and my eyes were such a dark brown that they almost looked black. What annoyed me about myself the most however was that I was never exactly _thin. _Hadn't been that way since I was like seven, but that was my own fault. I was too lazy to get into any exercise routines and I didn't have enough will to resist eating non-healthy foods. Well, at least I wasn't obese. I quickly drew my hair into a low looped bun before opening my door and heading towards the living room.

"Hey, dad! Sorry about the alarm!" I called out as I walked. "I had forced the dogs out into the yard earlier before it rained and I forgot to turn it back on." When I came to the living room, I saw that he wasn't there. _Hmm, he must already be in his room. I wonder if he heard me. He hasn't said anything back. _I glanced over at the bird cages and noticed that they looked a lot more freaked out than usual. I also noticed that the dogs had gone back out through the dog door and into the garage already. _That's odd. Usually they are still running around right after he comes home. _As I walked up to the cockatiel cage, I happened to glance out of the window. My heart nearly stopped. His car was not there. That meant that there was someone else in the house.

I immediately ran to my parent's room. They had a gun hidden behind their bed, and I might just be needing it. I stopped short when I saw that there was someone else already there.

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Insanely short chapter, I know. This is just the beginning though, lol. XD Review please!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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I froze in place, unable to move as my heart beat wildly in my chest. It wasn't the stranger's tall and muscular frame that had me frozen, nor his incredible inhuman beauty. It wasn't even his pale white skin that sparkled like a diamond as he stood by the window that had me glued in place. No, it was his piercing blood-red eyes. All I could think was, _Oh my God, oh my God, I'm gunna die, Lord save me please, I'm gunna die!_ On a somewhat brighter note, the vibrancy of his eye color at least meant that he wasn't hungry. Not that that thought brought me much comfort really. I'm sure my racing blood didn't do anything to help.

He chuckled darkly at my apparent fear. I'm sure he would have been able to smell the adrenaline pumping through my veins from a few miles away. He took a graceful yet menacing step towards me, and I stumbled backwards, somewhat regaining the use of my legs. "Ah, but you should know that is useless," he said in a smooth baritone voice, a large grin adorning his perfect face. And he was right. I did know, but that didn't stop me from instinctively backing out of the room anyway. _Damn it! If vampires had to be real why couldn't I have the fortune of running into a __good__ one?! Life's so not fair… _He continued to advance slowly upon me, and I backed up into a wall, trapping myself. He placed his hands on the wall on either side of me and leaned down closer towards my face. "What's your name, girl?" he asked, his sweet breath hitting me dead in the face and overpowering me.

"K-K-Kathrin," I stuttered, deep brown eyes locked onto his red ones. "Kathrin Smith."

"Well, _Kathrin, _you are quite the lucky one today. As you can see I've already fed quite recently, so you don't have to worry about me drinking from you."

This both surprised and confused me, but it did absolutely nothing to alleviate any of the fear I still felt. "W-What do you want then?" I asked, my voice just barely above a whisper.

He chuckled again, the musical sound only serving to further unravel my nerves. "What do I want? Call it 'fun' if you will." My jaw dropped and my eyes grew wider, if possible. "See, I don't think that there are _nearly_ as many of us out there as there should be. Especially with the Volturi killing off anyone who even makes _one_ mistake." He paused to evaluate my expression, and as if he knew what I was thinking said, "No, not the Volturi from those silly books that are in your room. The_ real_ Volturi are much more ruthless. Now, come with me."

As if I really had a choice in the matter. He covered my mouth with one hand, and picked me up as easily as if I had been a sheet of tissue paper with the other. I have no idea how, but he somehow managed to open up the front door while still carrying me. Then we were off.

Vampire speed was much faster than I had inferred from the books. We passed through the county so fast that I doubt anyone saw us even in broad daylight as it was. I had to close my eyes to keep from becoming ill. Keeping them open would have been pointless anyway, because I still would have had no idea where we were or where we were headed. When we eventually stopped, I opened my eyes slowly and saw that we were in what appeared to be a swamp. In front of us was a small and seemingly empty shack. It didn't seem like there were any people around us for miles. Joy. As he set me down, a very good question popped into my head. "What is a vampire doing living in Florida?" I asked meekly as he steered me towards the shack. "I mean, I know its hurricane season and all, but it doesn't rain THAT often…"

He laughed openly at this. "Simple enough problem to fix. I just hunt at night. Besides, with all of the old people living here, it's easy enough to pick off prey without them being missed much." I shuddered at this before he forcefully shoved me into the shack. Once we were in, he closed the door behind him and pressed me up against the wall. My heart rate picked up once more and my breathing grew ragged as I felt his breath on my throat. "Welcome to the world of the undead."

I screamed as his teeth pierced my flesh.

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Review please! And, if you have any ideas for stuff that can happen to our heroin, do tell. XP

(On a side note, I apologize that I seem to be incapable of making long chapters. I shall try to make up for this by updating as frequently as possible.)


	3. Chapter 3

I would like to thank Katie-chan for her reviews. They are very much appreciated. On with the story!

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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The pain that soon followed was indescribable. With the rapid pulse of my heart rate, the venom quickly began to spread from my neck to the rest of my body. I screamed in agony as fire coursed through my veins, burning me alive from the inside out. "Make it stop!" I cried out, slumping off the wall and onto the floor. "Get the fire out of me! Put it out!" I thrashed about in pain and desperation, not even sure if the vampire was still in the shack with me. It was pitch black inside, and I was already blinded by the pain as it was.

Time passed by entirely too slow. Every second seemed like an hour, and it wasn't long before my mind was convinced that I was in the black and fiery inferno known as hell. I had long since forgotten about all of the events leading up to this current state, for all I knew now was pain. No, pain and agony scarcely even_ began_ to describe what I was going through. I gnashed my teeth together in an attempt to distract myself with some _other_ pain. Something other than this fire that continued to burn me but not consume me.

After what seemed to my exhausted mind an eternity, the pain slowly started to subside. After a few last feeble pumps from my heart, the pain stopped. I sat up a lot quicker than I meant to and froze, having startled myself with my speed. Although it was still dark inside the shack, I could now see my surrounding quite clearly. It seemed that I had caused a lot of destruction with my thrashing around. I stood up, at a human pace this time, and dusted myself off. After another quick glance around, I noticed that there was a note taped to the door and that I was alone. Mildly annoyed, I tore the note from the door and began to read.

_Congratulations. If you are reading this then that means that you have finally awoken as a full-blown vampire now. It shouldn't be too hard for you to locate your first meal. There is a small neighborhood only a few miles north of your current location in which you can find some easy pickings. Don't get caught and happy hunting._

_-J_

I glared at the note vehemently. _J? That's __it__?! The jack-ass doesn't even have the __decency__ to give me his name! Ah, wait, there we go. His name must be jack-ass, _I thought sarcastically to myself, accidentally crushing the note to a fine powder in my rage. Oops, new born strength. I'd have to watch that. I stepped outside of the shack and took in one breath of air before my thirst hit me full-force. I moaned as I tried desperately to fight down the burning ache in the back of my throat. I had never liked sore throats as a human, and it wasn't any better now as a vampire either. I inhaled once more and 

immediately caught scent of human blood due north, just as the note had said. I took half a step in their direction before stopping myself. _No! I __can't__ kill humans! I'm gunna have to live off animals. _I fled further into the swamp at incredible speed, searching for something to eat. _Aw hell. I had a hard enough time dieting as a human. This is going to be torture… _I smelled an alligator up ahead and dashed toward it. Once I pounced I drained the thing dry before it could even put up a fight. I discarded the empty shell into the murky water and pounced on another one that was nearby. After this second meal I felt that I had adequately satiated my thirst. For now. The reptilian blood was far from satisfying however.

_So what now? _I thought to myself, sitting down on a log to mull over my transformation. _Where do I go from here? _I couldn't be around people yet, so college was definitely out. As were my dreams of becoming a doctor. _Seems rather ludicrous now. I wonder how Mom and Dad are… _Pain stabbed through my cold unbeating heart as I thought about what must be going on with my parents at the moment. Dad would have come home and found me missing, with no sign of a struggle. He would have called Mom and the police right away before going off to look for me. Mom would just about be having a heart attack and would be on the first flight back home. After a few weeks and months of not finding any trace of me, I would be presumed dead. Which, in a way, I was.

I grieved at this thought, more for everyone else than for myself. My parents, my family, my friends… They didn't deserve this kind of pain. But I couldn't go back. I would most certainly kill them if I did, and I couldn't bear to let that happen. I would have to start over with a new life, that was for certain.

Once nightfall came, I ran north with all haste. Not to feed on the humans whose houses was passing by, but to get out of the state as fast as possible. If I wanted to hold fast to this "vegetarian" diet, I'd need to stay in a place with less of a human population, and with more places for me to hunt.

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PLEASE review! I write more when you do! XD Plus any tips and/or ideas would be greatly appreciated!


	4. Chapter 4

MUCH thanks to Katie for the help she gave me in this chapter. Seriously, she helped a lot.

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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5 months later

My first Christmas season as a vampire had come and gone without anything really happening. For me it hadn't really been any different than any other day, for I was still alone and living in the woods. While my self-discipline had improved immensely, I still did not trust myself enough yet to be in the presence of people any more than necessary. Plus, going into civilization often drew much unwanted attention to myself with my new appearance. My hair was still dark brown and wavy, but now it was much silkier and healthier looking overall. My eyes were golden (unless I was thirsty of course) and my skin was uncannily white, with just a _slight_ tint of my former olive complexion. Also, as an added bonus, I was _finally _thin, while still retaining my natural curves. All of this added together would be _great_ if I could still live a somewhat normal life without wanting to kill anyone and everyone who crossed my path. _Ok, I'll reach that point __some__day… I hope. I just have to endure a few years of isolation to build up my strength… Or maybe a few decades… GAH! _I had never exactly been one for patience.

For the time being I mostly stayed around the Washington state area, finding that it was indeed pretty cloudy here most of the time. I moved around constantly to hunt in different areas, not wanting to establish any noticeable patterns or arouse suspicions. I stayed away from the Forks area as much as possible, for I had found out the hard way that the Quileute werewolves weren't fictional either. As for the Cullen family however, it sadly seemed that they were just a creation of Stephanie Meyer's imagination. That was a major disappointment to me to say the least. _However, that doesn't mean that there aren't any other vegetarian vampires out there… _I had thought to myself hopefully. If I would ever actually _find _any was a different story.

Speaking of vegetarians and the Cullens, I should probably mention my little gift about now- another reason I try to stay away from people as much as possible. I, unfortunately, can read minds. So original, isn't it? And _highly_ annoying. On the plus side, I can also send telepathic messages. Discovered this by accident on one occasion when this human was having more annoying thoughts than usual and I told him to shut up. Or, well, _thought _to him to shut up. Let's just say, his confusion and the look on his face was priceless.

At the moment I was sitting on a rock, bored out of my mind. Again. _Hmm, __this__ seems oddly familiar… _I thought dryly to myself. I had already hunted earlier, so I was set for a little while on blood. As I pondered about the upcoming new year, my thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the thought of someone else nearby. Someone who was fast approaching.

_Finally! It's about time I found her! Honestly didn't think she'd leave Florida. Well, I guess it's not much of a surprise really. It's harder to get by in sunny places._

Even though thoughts are usually of a slightly different tenor than a person's actual voice, I instantly recognized these thoughts to belong to the vampire I affectionately refer to as "jack-ass." _Why would he be looking for me though? __He's __the one who left me alone. _I decided to wait and find out.

It was only a few seconds later that he stood before me, looking exactly as I had remembered him. Short brown hair, piercing red eyes, unnatural beauty. Well, actually, his eyes weren't that vibrant at the moment. It seemed that he hadn't hunted much on his search for me. "What do you want, Jack-ass?"

His laugh still gave me the shivers, but only because I still very well remembered our first meeting. The sound in of itself was quite pleasant. "Why, is that any way to greet your maker?"

My eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "You're my changer, not my Maker. There's a big difference."

He scoffed openly at this. "_Please_, you can't tell me that you _possibly_ still believe in God, can you?"

"Why yes as a matter of fact I do. Before we continue any further however I would at _least_ like to know your name."

He shrugged his shoulders casually. "Fair enough. You actually weren't too far off earlier. My name's Jack."

As much as I wanted to keep my composure, I couldn't help but double over laughing. "Does that mean- I can- still call you- 'Jack-ass'?" I rasped in between unnecessary breaths, still laughing.

"Whatever floats your boat," Jack replied, watching me warily. _Is she going to be alright? I don't think I've ever seen a vampire laughing that hard, _I heard him think.

I managed to quickly recover myself, turning serious once more. "So, dare I ask why the hell you've gone through the effort of tracking me down from the other side of the country?"

"To check on your well being of course," he replied, flashing me a grin. "I had to make sure that you didn't do anything stupid that would end up getting you killed by the Volturi."

Now that I didn't have to worry about him killing me (as I still had much of my newborn strength and could easily take him down), I found myself thinking thoughts along the lines of _damn he's hot! _I shook my head vehemently when I realized just what I was thinking. _NO!__ I can't think that way about __him!__ This is the jack-ass that damned me to this life in the __first__ place! _"I hardly think I shall have to worry much about the Volturi with my current diet," I replied coolly, my bright topaz orbs lifting up to connect with his darkened rubies.

"Perhaps. Diet's not the _only_ way to slip up though," he reminded me, still smirking. "You have to keep our existence completely secret. So no accidental sun exposure around humans, nor displays of super human strength. That includes that fact that you would not bleed or probably even be injured if someone were to shoot you."

"I'm well aware of all of this," I replied with an aggravated sigh, closing my eyes momentarily. "The Twilight books were very informative on the vampire lifestyle. Now here's a question: why isn't Stephanie Meyer in trouble with the Volturi?"

"Beats the hell out of me. I'll tell you one thing though, it has made it near impossible to go out in public anymore. Now people are practically_ looking_ for vampires. Fools."

"Which brings me back to my earlier question: why were _you_ looking for _me_? I know you aren't telling the whole truth." I had been studying his thoughts, but, as if he knew of my ability , he had explicitly been not thinking of his true reason for tracking me down.

His eyes locked with mine once more as he pondered whether to tell me or not. Finally, he said, "You really want to know why I've followed you here all the way from Florida? I'll tell you."

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Cliffies are fun! Wheeee! XD Review please! (Again, any thoughts, comments, and/or ideas are both helpful and appreciated.)


	5. Chapter 5

I would once again like to give my thanks to Katie for helping me out of a tight spot on that last chapter and giving me a new direction for this story to go in. As a treat, this chapter shall be in Jack's POV. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

Another Disclaimer: I do not own the brownie joke, lol. XD; Got that off of facebook. ;P

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Jack's POV

I remember the first time I ever laid eyes on Kathrin. It was only a little over a year ago actually. It was night at the time and she and a bunch of her friends were outside throwing fake snowballs at each other. Upon closer inspection I saw that they were actually flour stuffed in nylon stockings tied in a ball. _Well __this__ is rather interesting, _I thought to myself in amusement as the flour balls exploded on contact. _Well, I guess since this state never gets any snow they have to improvise. _I was watching the scene from a rooftop in the back of the neighborhood, well hidden in the darkness. From what I could gather from the bits and pieces of conversation I heard, this seemed to be a birthday party. I chuckled to myself as even the parents joined in the fight. _Strange little humans indeed. Lucky for them I fed just outside of the city. _Excitement was running at an all time high, which was apparent even without my little 'gift'.

Once the little party was over and everyone had finally gone home, I slid gracefully off of the rooftop and landed on the ground like a cat before silently stalking over to the girl's house. I was bored and it wasn't as if I had anything else to do really. I sat down outside of her window with my back to the wall, simply listening to her walk about and sensing her emotions. There was mainly happiness and relief, but what confused me was that I also sensed some mild disappointment, sadness, and even a touch of anger and bitterness as well. Listening to a conversation between her and her mother I discovered that it was simply because this boy that she liked had been unable to come last minute due to forgetfulness on his part. I merely rolled my eyes at this. Human issues were so petty.

Nonetheless, for reasons I couldn't name this particular girl became something of interest to me. Perhaps watching her was just a way for me to pass the time. After all, eternity on earth could be extremely dull if you constantly followed the same old routine. It wasn't very difficult to learn her schedule, and most of her free time was spent on the computer. I decided to get myself a laptop so that I could watch her online as well. While most of her conversations were not of a serious nature, listening to and reading them reminded me of a simpler time, back when I was human myself. I almost missed those days. Almost.

Naturally, while eavesdropping on the girl, I caught a lot of conversation between her parents too. It seemed that her family life was rather screwed up to put it kindly. _Perhaps that's why she spends so much time on the computer, _I reasoned with myself. _It must be like an escape for her. _

Sometimes being an empath can be quite dangerous. Sure, it can have its benefits at times, but if you are around the same person for too long, constantly feeling each and every one of their emotions as your own, you can start growing rather close to them. Even if they have no idea that you exist. By the time I realized this it was far too late. I had grown dangerously attached to the human and I couldn't seem to pull myself away. I made several attempts, but to no avail. _This is __ridiculous__! I can't have feelings for a __human__! That would be like a human having feelings for a __brownie__ for Pete's sake! _I reprimanded myself, over and over again. I was the predator, and she was the prey. There was only one solution I could see: I would have to make her into a predator myself. Then these feelings would no longer be so wrong or unnatural.

Her graduation came and went and I decided to let her enjoy most of her summer vacation before I would change her. After all, she had no idea just how little time she had left among the living as it was. She picked up the "Twilight" series during the summer, which I found rather amusing to say the least. Well, at least she would have some warning as to what her next life was going to be like. Hope she studied them well.

One day while her mother was out of town and her father was at work, I decided that I had waited long enough. It was sheer luck on my part that she happened to have forced the dogs out earlier that day and forgot to both lock the door and turn the alarm back on. It just made things so much easier for me. I entered quickly and quietly through said garage door, the only sound of my entrance being the alarm chirping as I opened and closed the door. Both the birds and the dogs freaked out at the sight of me, but I paid them no mind as I moved at vampire speed into the master bed room. I knew that once she realized that there was an intruder in the house, the first thing she would go for was her parents' gun. So that's where I decided to lay in wait.

I heard her call out to her father as she walked towards the living room and smirked. _Ignorant girl…_ I listened as she walked over towards the bird cages, mild confusion coming off of her in waves. Once I felt a stab of panic, I knew that she had become aware of my presence. She immediately ran the short distance to the bedroom and froze in place at the sight of me. It probably didn't help much that I was standing next to the open window with the sun glistening off of my skin. I couldn't help but chuckle at the waves of panic and terror that were rolling off of her, threatening to mingle in with my own emotions. I retained my cool however and took a slow step towards her. She immediately stumbled backwards, seeming to regain some control over herself. "Ah, but you should know that is useless," I remarked with a large grin. Despite the feelings I had developed for this girl, the game of "cat and mouse" was still just as thrilling now as it was any other time that I hunted. I continued to stalk toward her as she backed herself into a wall. Perfect. I placed my hands against the wall on either side of her and leaned in closer to her face. "What's your name, girl?" I asked, breathing into her face and momentarily stunning her with my scent. Of course I already knew her name, but I wasn't about to let on to that.

"K-K-Kathrin," she stuttered, her terror-filled eyes locked with mine. "Kathrin Smith."

"Well, _Kathrin, _you are quite the lucky one today. As you can see I've already fed quite recently, so you don't have to worry about me drinking from you." What I _didn't_ tell her however was that I fed as recently as I did so that she _wouldn't_ have to worry about that. After all, I didn't want to bite her and then accidentally end up draining her by mistake.

Another wave of confusion emanated from her after I said this. "W-What do you want then?" she whispered, still confused as to what I wanted with her.

I chuckled again, which seemed to unravel her nerves even further. "What do I want? Call it 'fun' if you will." Her jaw dropped and her eyes somehow managed to grow even wider. "See, I don't think that there are _nearly_ as many of us out there as there should be. Especially with the Volturi killing off anyone who even makes _one_ mistake." I paused to evaluate her expression, and, remembering the books that she had been reading, said, "No, not the Volturi from those silly books that are in your room. The_ real_ Volturi are much more ruthless. Now, come with me."

I covered her mouth with one hand to keep her from screaming, and picked her up with the other before heading out the door and dashing away. I ran as fast as I possibly could, for it was broad daylight and I could not afford to be seen. Plus we would need some place completely private for the transformation to take place. After all, we couldn't have anyone nearby to hear her screaming and call the police.

Eventually we reached a secluded part of the everglades where I had built myself a private shack for personal use. This would be the perfect place. As I steered her towards the shack, she suddenly asked, "What is a vampire doing living in Florida? I mean, I know its hurricane season and all, but it doesn't rain THAT often…"

I laughed aloud at this question. It was a bit odd really, but even if I had to stay hidden I just loved the sun too much for my own good. "Simple enough problem to fix. I just hunt at night. Besides, with all of the old people living here, it's easy enough to pick off prey without them being missed much." She shuddered at my response before I lightly shoved her into the shack. Once we were in, I closed the door behind me and pressed her up against the wall. Her heart rate picked up once more and her breathing grew ragged as she felt my breath on my throat. 

"Welcome to the world of the undead." She let out a loud scream as my teeth pierced her flesh. I made sure to pump as much venom into her as I could in that one bite while still resisting the desire to drink from her.

She screamed again as I released the bite and slumped down to the floor. "Make it stop! Get the fire out of me! Put it out!" Obviously the venom was making quick work of traveling through her system. I stayed with her for as long as I could bare, but after about a day and a half the emotional torment began to be a bit too much for me to handle. I wrote her a note and left it on the door before running off to go hunt. Then I would wait for her by the neighborhood I had mentioned in the note. I remembered well the overpowering thirst of when you first woke up, and I couldn't see her _not_ rushing towards the humans for the hunt. That was obviously a mistake on my part.

After waiting a few days, I began to grow worried. _Did something happen to her? Did she expose herself and get killed by the Volturi? Or did she just go to hunt elsewhere? _Deciding to investigate, I dashed back over to the now empty shack to pick up her scent. When I followed the scent, it initially led me further into the everglades, where there were no humans around at all. _That's rather… odd. _Then it seemed that her scent went back northward. Now I was a bit more confused. _Why the detour? And why didn't she come to the neighborhood to feed?_

I must confess, tracking has never exactly been a strong suit of mine. I managed to follow her scent out of Florida, but after that I seemed to lose it. So, the search was on. What a _long_ search that would be…

Shortly after Christmas I decided to try searching the northwest. As I got closer I was able to pick up on her scent again. _Yes! Finally!_ I thought to myself, following the trail to Washington state. Of course, once I _got_ there then I had to decipher yet another confusing trail. It seemed that she had been all over the place. I found the most recent trail and decided to follow that. When I smelled her dead ahead, I thought to myself, _Finally! It's about time I found her! Honestly didn't think she'd leave Florida. Well, I guess it's not much of a surprise really. It's harder to get by in sunny places._

A few seconds later I stood right in front of her, and I was momentarily stunned by how different she looked. I had expected it of course, but somehow I hadn't quite expected the golden eyes. They looked better than I would have liked to admit.

"What do you want, Jack-ass?" Kathrin greeted in a not so friendly fashion.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Why, is that any way to greet your maker?"

This elicited a small wave of anger/hatred from her. "You're my changer, not my Maker. There's a big difference."

I scoffed at this notion. "_Please_, you can't tell me that you _possibly_ still believe in God, can you?"

"Why yes as a matter of fact I do. Before we continue any further however I would at _least_ like to know your name."

I shrugged. That was a natural question to ask. "Fair enough. You actually weren't too far off earlier. My name's Jack."

What came next took me a bit off guard. Waves of humor came rolling off of her as she doubled over laughing. "Does that mean- I can- still call you- 'Jack-ass'?" she asked in between laughs.

"Whatever floats your boat," I replied, watching hr with uncertainty. _Is she going to be alright? I don't think I've ever seen a vampire laughing that hard._

Almost as if she had heard my thoughts, she quickly recovered herself and became serious once more. "So, dare I ask why the hell you've gone through the effort of tracking me down from the other side of the country?"

I flashed her a grin. "To check on your well being of course. I had to make sure that you didn't do anything stupid that would end up getting you killed by the Volturi."

For a moment as I was talking I thought I felt the _tiniest_ bit of lust, which was quickly covered by embarrassment and mild angry as she shook her head to clear her mind of whatever she was thinking. "I hardly think I shall have to worry much about the Volturi with my current diet," she replied coolly, her bright topaz orbs lifting up to connect with my now dark ruby ones.

"Perhaps. Diet's not the _only_ way to slip up though," I reminded her, still smirking. "You have to keep our existence completely secret. So no accidental sun exposure around humans, nor displays of super human strength. That includes that fact that you would not bleed or probably even be injured if someone were to shoot you."

"I'm well aware of all of this," she replied with an aggravated sigh, closing her eyes momentarily. "The Twilight books were very informative on the vampire lifestyle. Now here's a question: why isn't Stephanie Meyer in trouble with the Volturi?"

Another very good question that I sometimes wondered to myself. "Beats the hell out of me. I'll tell you one thing though, it has made it near impossible to go out in public anymore. Now people are practically_ looking_ for vampires. Fools." It's almost as if they _wanted_ to die or something.

"Which brings me back to my earlier question: why were _you_ looking for _me_? I know you aren't telling the whole truth."

I hesitated for a moment, locking gazes with her once more. _Should I tell her the truth? Or would that just make things end badly? I could wait till later, but that might be even __worse__ than if I tell her now. I guess I'll just have to tell her from the beginning and hope for the best. _Finally, I said, "You really want to know why I've followed you here all the way from Florida? I'll tell you."

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Hey, same cliffie as before! Tee-hee. At least you got a glimpse of the story from Jack's perspective. (Selfish little git, isn't he?) Review please!


	6. Chapter 6

Hello all! Back with another chapter! Thank you very much for your insight and kind reviews. On with the story!

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Kathrin's POV

I listened in silence as Jack recounted his tale from the beginning. I watched the memories play through his mind as he spoke, sort of like watching a video with narrative. To find out that for the past year I had been being _stalked_ by a vampire was rather disturbing to say the least. Once he reached the part about deciding to change me, I immediately felt anger beginning to bubble up inside of me. It only increased as the story progressed. _You ASSHOLE! You didn't even __consider__ first whether I actually WANTED to be a vampire or not?! If you had truly been listening to me as much as you claim you would have known I would much rather have __died__ than be damned to live on this earth till the Second Coming- whenever that may be! You selfish little BASTARD! _

He winced under the feelings of outrage and the mental thrashing that I had unintentionally sent to him. "Yes, I deserved that," he admitted, scratching the back of his head nervously. "And it seems that you are a telepath. That being said, surely you've seen my side of the story quite well. Can't you understand my reasoning and what I was going through?"

"Am I supposed to give a damn?" I replied heatedly, my hands balled up into fists at my sides as I resisted the urge to sock him in the face. "Cause obviously _you _didn't have a care for my side of things, so why should I care about yours?"

"Cause of your, er, Christian beliefs?" he replied hesitantly, knowing full well just how angry I was with him.

I let out a frustrated sigh, knowing that he had me there. _Damn it! Evil little git. Wish I had resisted the urge to cuss him out a moment ago, even if that was technically in my head still. _"Fine," I said, trying to tone my temper down just a smidgen. "I'll forgive you. That doesn't mean however that I plan on staying anywhere near you. Good day, Jack." I took off before he could reply, using my newborn speed to my advantage as I ran away. Personally, if I never saw him again it would be too soon.

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Jack's POV

I momentarily contemplated going after her, but I knew it would be of no use. I had absolutely no chance of catching her just yet. I let out a sigh and sat down where she had been sitting previous to my arrival. _She has every right to be mad at me, _I sulked to myself. _Still, I wish that had gone a little bit better than it did. I guess I need to give her some cool-down time before I try again. A year, maybe two. By then she may have abandoned her ridiculous animal diet and we could start fresh. Become friends at the very least. _I cast my gaze upward at the cloudy sky, pondering these things to myself. I could wait. After all, we both now had all of the time in the world.

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Kathrin's POV

I wasn't quite paying much attention to where I was going. I simply ran. The running seemed to help clear my head as I took deep and unnecessary breaths of fresh air. Now that I wasn't standing face to face with the git, I could feel my anger slowly starting to ebb away. Reflecting over everything that I saw and heard, I guess I couldn't blame the guy _too_ much- though his actions were still beyond selfish. _Kind of almost reminds me of Edward and Bella. Only more twisted. And demented. And kind of creepy. _I let out a sigh and slowed myself down to a stop to take in my surroundings. I was facing north, so I assumed that I had run well into Canada by now. _Hmm, Canada. Shame I don't know any French. _I considered visiting a nearby town after the sun had gone down, just for fun. After all, I had never been to Canada as a human, so it might actually be fun. _Heck, actually I could visit a LOT of places now as a vampire,_ I mused to myself, now that traveling and money were not issues. _Heck, I could swim to Japan if I wanted! Oh, I might just do that soon. That would be awesome! And now that I have perfect memory learning new languages should be a __breeze__! _This train of thought excited me immensely. Maybe being a vampire wasn't going to be so bad _after_ all.

Though, if I planned on going through with my plan of visiting a town this evening, I should probably hunt one more before hand- just in case. Something small would do. I closed my eyes for a moment and let myself slip into hunting mode. There was a lone wolf due east of me. Perfect. My eyes snapped open and I darted off in the direction of my prey. My attention was so focused on the wolf however that I didn't notice I was on a collision course with another vampire until it was too late.

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Semi-cliffie, lol. Who could this new vampire be? What will be his reaction to the collision? How many more stupid questions will I ask before going off to work on the next chapter already? XD hit over the head with a brick OW! rubs head Alright, alright, I'll get typing. In the meantime, please review! It provides much needed motivation for me to continue, lol. XD Once again, any ideas and/or suggestions for the story are very much welcomed.

(Once again, sorry for my impossibly short chapters. You have to admit that I update quite frequently though. XP)


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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The sound of the collision could probably be heard for miles around as it echoed through the Canadian wood. Needless to say we both found ourselves on the ground, but fortunately we were no worse for the wear. He asked me a question in French to which I simply replied, "What?"

I stopped breathing as soon as I looked over at him. He was absolutely _breathtaking_! He was tall and lean while at the same time still being muscular. His hair was slightly wavy, a little over ear-length, and a rich deep honey blond. To top things off he had a gorgeous set of honey colored eyes. _I had found another vegetarian!_ He stood up swiftly and gracefully before offering me his hand. "I am sorry, Mademoiselle. Are you alright?" he asked in a thick French accent, looking down at me kindly.

I stopped myself from gaping at him any further and gratefully accept his offer to help me up. It was a good thing that I could no longer blush. "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." After our earlier crash the wolf was now long gone- along with any other potential prey in the immediate area. "Uh, sorry about getting in the way of your kill there." He laughed lightly in response, and the beauty of the sound made me feel almost faint.

"That is quite alright, Mademoiselle. No apologies necessary. Ah, how rude of me! I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Jacques," he replied with an enchanting smile.

It was only through the dazzling power of this very same smile that I was able to fight down the fit of giggles that threatened to erupt from me. _First "Jack" now "Jacques". What are the chances, seriously? _"It's a pleasure to meet you, _Jacques._ My name is Kathrin." I realized at that moment that I had yet to let go of his hand since he had helped me off the ground. I "casually" let go of his hand and let it fall back down to my side. Well, as casually as I _could_ in that situation anyway. Yup, definitely a good thing that I could no longer blush. He chuckled at my obvious embarrassment. "So, um, you're a vegetarian too, huh?" I asked, attempting to make small talk. I had never exactly been a very good conversationalist.

"Vegetarian?" he replied with an amused smile. "Interesting way too put it. Yes, I suppose I am."

As a human I had never been as "into" the French accent as most other girls my age. Sure, it was a bit of a turn on, but so were a lot of other accents. In this case however I was completely enraptured by it. "That's good. I haven't had the fortune of meeting any others until now. Do you know any others?"

"Yes actually, but none of them are on this continent at the moment. See, I'm part of a fairly large coven, but we've decided to split up for a few years and live in different areas of the world." He spoke as if this was the most natural thing in the world, but I still found the whole situation be quite fascinating. I guess this showed on my face, because right afterward he said, "You have not been a vampire for very long, have you."

I chuckled and shook my head. "That obvious, is it?"

"Well, I have to admit, the sheer force with which we collided kind of tipped me off. Not to mention how strong your grip was on my hand a moment ago."

We stood there together for hours after, talking about various things. He told me all about his "family", his world travels, and his past experiences. Apparently he had been born a native to Canada and moved to France a few years after. He and his human family had lived there until the day that he was bitten. Oddly enough, he was bitten by a member of the Volturi. "They could tell from watching me that I would definitely have a gift, and they wished to recruit me."

"What is your gift?" I asked curiously. I had been concentrating very hard on only listening to his words and not his thoughts, simply so I could have even more of an excuse to talk to him. Surprisingly, it seemed to be working quite well. _Perhaps if I work at it hard enough I can learn to tune out thoughts completely. There might be hope after all._

Jacques smiled before lightly touching his fingers to my arm. Even just this simply small touch brought an unreasonable thrill to me. He chuckled lightly before answering. "I am an empath of sorts, but only through physical contact. I can tell exactly what someone is feeling at any given moment as well as how they feel towards specific things… or people." Sensing the immediate embarrassment that came over me, he kindly withdrew his hand from my skin.

_Ok, this is just freaky, _I thought to myself. _First I'm changed by this vampire named "Jack" who is an empath. Then I run into- literally- another vampire whose name is "Jacques" and he's ALSO an empath! I feel like I'm in the twilight zone or something. Oh gosh, "Twilight" zone. That is a BEYOND horrible pun! _I managed to shake myself out of my mental ramblings in time to hear him ask if I had a gift as well. "Yeah, I'm a telepath," I replied with a sigh. "It gets annoying hearing others thoughts all of the time. I've been trying to learn how to tune them out."

Jacques expression still seemed rather amused. "Any luck with that?" _Can you hear me now?_

_Yes._

_Good._

We both laughed at this little exchange. "Beat _that_, Verizon," I said jokingly. "I think that was much clearer than any cell phone signal, don't you?"

"Oui." He cast his gaze upward at the now setting sun. "Would you like to come to town with me for the evening? It can be fun to people watch from time to time."

"I would love to," I replied, not being able to help but grin. "Though, could we perhaps hunt a little first? I'm still not that comfortable with my control around humans yet."

He laughed before putting a comforting arm around my shoulder. "Relax, Kathrin. I won't let you do anything. Besides, I can tell that you've eaten quite recently enough as it is."

I wasn't completely sure why, but rather than feeling shy or embarrassed as I normally would have when he put his arm around me, I felt completely relaxed and at ease. His empathic abilities had completely slipped from my mind as a possible cause. "Alright then," I replied with a small nod. "Let's go then." With that he slid his hand down to meet my own and we took off towards the small town.

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No cliffie this time! W00T! I'm sure you guys are very pleased about that. XD Review please! (Helps me to write a lot faster and better.)


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Jacques' POV

To be honest my first impression of Kathrin was, well, a bit comical. As were the circumstances under which we met. When I held her hand as I helped her up, I could feel that she had taken almost an immediate liking to me. I was both flattered and mildly amused by this, but I didn't voice this knowledge to her so as not to cause any further embarrassment to the poor girl. She had quite enough of that going through her already as it was. Needless to say, I was mildly confused by the strong bout of humor that I felt course through her as I told her my name. _Such an odd girl… I'll have to ask her later just what was so funny. _I couldn't help but chuckle once she slid her hand out of mine, her embarrassment being quite obvious even without the use of my gift.

We talked about many different things for a long time before the conversation eventually turned onto the subject of vampire gifts. "What is your gift?" she asked curiously, her topaz eyes looking innocently into my own.

I smiled and lightly touched my fingers to her arm. I felt a thrill of excitement from her at my touch, and I couldn't help but chuckle. It seemed that her feelings for me had been slowly increasing as the day had gone on. "I am an empath of sorts, but only through physical contact. I can tell exactly what someone is feeling at any given moment as well as how they feel towards specific things… or people." Embarrassment flooded through her system once more and I kindly pulled my hand away from her so as to alleviate her discomfort. After a moment I asked, "So, do you have any special gifts yourself?" It turned out that she was a telepath, which resulted in another amusing little exchange between us. I think I was starting to like this girl.

Although she was still _extremely_ young in vampire years (not even being half a year _old_ yet), I managed to convince her into going on a night time outing in the town. This was insanely reckless I know, for if something were to happen that caused her to lose control she may well be able to break free of my hold on her with some ease. Still, I felt that her control was strong enough for us to manage so long as we were very careful. I held her hand the whole way as we ran to the town, making sure that she stayed in a relatively calm mood. Excitement or nervousness generally didn't do much to aid one's self-control.

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Kathrin's POV

We slowed ourselves down to a human paced walk as soon as Jacques and I arrived at the outskirts of the town. I made a note to myself to cut off my air supply and did so just before we entered. Jacques seemed to notice this and chuckled lightly. "You know, it's rather difficult to talk to an unbreathing companion," he whispered to me below human level.

_Yes, but I don't need to talk to communicate now, do I._

_Ah, right, telepathic. Very handy gift indeed._

_So, where shall we start?_

_Well, not to insult you or anything, but should we start off with some clothes shopping? You look like you've been wearing the same clothes for months now._

I groaned internally at this. I had always _hated_ shopping as a human, but now I could not deny the dire need. _I don't have any money…_

He flashed me a warm smile that made my dead heart want to melt. _That is quite alright. Anything we buy or do tonight will be my treat._

Now I almost _missed_ being able to blush. _Thank you, Jacques._

With that said (or, uh, "thought"), we decided to first stop by the nearest clothing store. If I thought that I had gotten a lot of stares _before _I was wrong. With the two of us entering the store hand-in-hand it seemed almost everyone was gawking at us. And the annoying buzz of thoughts increased dramatically in volume.

_Oh my gosh! Am I DREAMING? That has to be THE most HANDSOME guy in the planet? Ugh, what I wouldn't give to be that girl…_

_Damn she's hot! Will you marry me? Dang it, I wish I hadn't already proposed to someone else…_

_Are they models or something? They look like just came from a photoshoot!_

I clutched my head with my free hand in mild annoyance, wondering vaguely if vampires could get migraines. _Ugh, human thoughts are so annoying, _I said privately to Jacques. _And loud. You're lucky that your ability is only through contact._

He chuckled quietly. _Are my thoughts annoying too?_

_Actually, I've been trying to block you out._

He seemed confused. _Did I offend you with something?_

_No! Not at all! I've just been trying to give you your privacy is all. I know most people wouldn't like having their thoughts invaded._

He smiled again, seeming to understand. _Thank you for the consideration._

_No problem. I'm going to try to make this trip fairly quick. These people are giving me a headache. _I released my hold on Jacques' hand and headed for the nearest clothes rack, looking for something decent that was in my size. I still held my breath as a precaution.

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Jacques' POV

I frowned just ever so slightly when Kathrin let go of my hand to shop. I had to admit to myself that I rather liked knowing what she was feeling. She was such an interesting girl, and still pretty shy and innocent. A rather rare thing to find in vampires these days. I watched her browse through shirts with a smile, content doing just that. I was soon pulled out of my tranquil state however when my thoughts were interrupted by an overly friendly store worker. "Can I help you with anything sir? Anything at all?" she asked in a flirtatious manner. There were a few other female employees hanging back looking almost livid at the fact that she beat them to me.

"No thank you, Mademoiselle. I am not in need of any assistance." The worker before me nearly swooned the second that I started talking, which was not something entire uncommon of human females. The few customers in the store who had finally turned away now had their attention back on me, jaws slacked and eyes glazed over. _And this is why I avoid talking in public. _I thought I heard a small snort from Kathrin's direction. It seemed that thought had managed to slip through.

"Well, if you change your mind or need anything at all, just let me know, kay? My name is Jill." She looked up at me expectantly; batting her eyelashes in what she must have thought was a flirtatious manner. It ended up looking more like she had something stuck in her eyes.

"Will do," I replied simply before making my way over next to Kathrin. _So, dare I ask what atrocious thoughts are coming from the employees as I do this? _I asked, placing one hand on the small of her back and leaning in to give her a light kiss on the cheek. I felt a thrill of excitement run through her at my actions and had to fight down a laugh at the look of shock on her face. I imagined her face being crimson and her heart beating wildly in her chest had she still been human.

_No, you __definitely__ don't want to know what they are thinking right now. _My eyes drifted casually back over to the group and saw that they were all staring daggers at Kathrin.

_Do I want to know what __you__ thought? _I asked in a teasing manner, looking back at her to see her reaction.

A small smile crossed her lips, but she kept her gaze downward at the shirts in her hands. _I'll just leave that up to your imagination._

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Fluff! Gotta love fluff! lol.

Thank you for the few of you who have left me reviews! I would like to encourage you to continue doing so! XD It helps us all out in the long run. ;) Review Please!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Jacques' POV

The clothes shopping took us only about half an hour in total. When we left the store Kathrin was now wearing a black, long sleeved, form fitting turtle neck with jeans and a pair of black leather boots. It was a simple enough outfit in of itself, but on her it looked absolutely _stunning_. She thanked me profusely in her thoughts as we walked down the street hand in hand again. I couldn't help but chuckle. "That's quite enough already. It was no trouble at all," I whispered to her with a kind smile. "Now, let's take our outing to some place a little more _private_. I'm sure you've endure listening to quite enough human minds just in that store alone."

_Oh you have __no__ idea. _She replied back telepathically. Funny, even when she wasn't actually talking her voice carried with it a soothing timbre similar to a clarinet. I felt another small wave of embarrassment and realized that she must have heard me. _Yeah, sorry, my mind reading ability doesn't seem to want to go unused. _

_You don't have to try so hard you know. I honestly don't mind. After all, your emotions are no secret to me at the moment either._

_That's true I suppose. Anyway, I just found that thought to be rather ironic._

_Oh? How so?_

_Well, I used to play the clarinet actually._

_Really? Fascinating. _We continued on this mental conversation for a while as I led her to a small park. Since it was starting to grow rather late in the evening there only very few people there. A perfect place for us to spend some alone time together.

"So, what happened to a night out on the town?" she asked teasingly as we sat down on a park bench together. Since there were fewer people around I surmised that she felt it a little safer to breathe here. I did notice her eyes darken a bit though.

"This park is part of the town, is it not?" I replied with a small shrug. _Though, perhaps you should go back to holding your breath. Your eyes got noticeably darker only after one._

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Kathrin's POV

_I'll be fine. I need to build up my resistance anyway. _"Well, I suppose that it is. And quite a lovely part of town at that." I cast my gaze at the park around me, only really half-way taking in what I was seeing. I mainly was doing it just to keep Jacques from seeing my eyes darken even further. A dull burning ache was starting to grow at the back of my throat from the scent of human blood all around.

_You don't need to try so hard, _he thought to me comfortingly, sensing my slowly growing stress. I gave a sad nod of acknowledgement before cutting off my air supply once more.

_I just hate feeling so weak… I want to be able to control myself better._

_You are far from weak. Do you honestly think any other newborn your age would be able to handle being around people this well without attacking?_

_I wouldn't know. _Jacques thought something back to me, but my mind was no longer focusing on _his_ thoughts. Instead my mind was focused on the thoughts of a human who was not too far from us. His thoughts were murderous. "Jacques, we need to get out of here _now,_" I whispered at vampire speed as he stood up and pulled him with me.

_Why? What's wrong? _Too late. A gun shot went off in the trees fairly close to us. Jacques froze in place and his eyes darkened considerably in only a second's time.

_Don't breathe__! _He shouted at me mentally, dragging me along at a human paced run. The warning was hardly needed however, for I knew I would lose complete control if I did. The most horrible part though was hearing the thoughts of the now dying man and not being able to do a thing to help him. Well, there may be ONE thing I could do to help him.

_SOMEBODY CALL AN ABULANCE! _I shouted mentally at the general area. A few people seemed to respond to my shout and began dialing their cell phones. That was all I could do. Once we were safely out of human sight we dashed away from the town as fast as possible.

"That was rather noble of you," Jacques remarked when we finally stopped. "You may have helped save his life- though I am sure you left many confused."

"I just wish I could have stopped him from being shot in the first place," I replied gloomily, looking down at the ground. "By the time I heard the shooter's thoughts though it was already too late."

Jacques stepped lightly in front of me and gently lifted up my chin so I could meet his gaze. "You have absolutely _nothing_ to feel guilty about you know. There was nothing either of us could have possibly done. Besides, in the end, all humans die sooner or later. That's just life."

I knew that he was simply trying to console me with these words, but I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of grief. Grief at the reminder that my family and friends would all soon pass on without me. I would be alive for a much longer time than they. _Well, sort of alive. Ugh, why do I always have to be so technical?_

Jacques tenderly traced the side of my face with the back of his fingers, succeeding in pulling me out of my depressive state of thought. A smile crossed his face as I instinctively leaned into his cool touch. I had no idea why, but it just felt- _right_. His thoughts seemed to indicate that he was feeling the same way. Since he knew I was listening, he asked, _May I?_

I barely nodded, my mind in a slight daze as my eyes locked with his. Slowly, he leaned his face in closer to my own, until our lips were mere inches apart. He hesitated there and I slowly reached up for my lips to meet his own. Our lips had only barely touched when I heard the distinct sound of someone clearing their throat behind us. I quickly turned around.

There, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed, was a very livid looking Jack.

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Dun dun dun! Review please!

On a side note, being that Breaking Dawn comes out _tonight, _I may not be able to update again for a few days. (Of course, I'm sure that you guys will be just as busy reading as myself.) Nevertheless I will TRY to get one more chapter out before the weekend, but no guarantees. In any case I will update as soon as I possibly can.


	10. Chapter 10

I would like very much to thank you all for your reviews. They honestly make my day a little bit brighter every time I review one. D (Hint hint.) Anyway, on with the story!

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Jack's POV

Ok, so obviously my plan to wait it out a year before talking to her again hadn't quite fallen through. Only a few hours after Kathrin left I could no longer stand the separation from her. It was quite pathetic actually. I had once been so strong and independent. How quickly I now crumpled! I would have never thought it possible for any one being to have such an effect over me. It was like an addiction almost. I was the crackhead and she was my high. I needed her- to be with her, to _feel_ her. Without her around I felt hollow, empty. With all of that said my resolve quickly caved and I chased after her scent trail.

Her trail was much easier to follow this time for several reasons. For one it was a lot fresher. This meant it was much stronger and easier to track. Secondly, her path didn't deviate much at all, mainly keeping north. I paused once I reached a point in the trail where her scent mingled with that of another vampire. _Oh? What's this? _The scent was stronger here, which suggested that the two of them had lingered for quite a while. _It seems that Kathrin has made herself a new friend. _I couldn't help but feel a small twinge of jealousy at this. Especially when I noticed that the two scents continued off down the same path. Already some lucky vampire was being permitted to spend time in her company while I, who longed for that self-same privilege more than anything I could possibly imagine, was a source of intense anger and pain for her. I sighed internally at the thought. _I've really dug myself into a trench this time haven't I. _Not pausing a minute longer I tore off after the trail again, still determined to see it to its end.

Where the trail led next left me completely flabbergasted. _A __town__?! _I thought incredulously to myself. _Did she suddenly decide to give up on her ridiculous diet or something? _Now morbid curiosity took a stronger hold of me than my desire as I followed her scent into the town. The other vampire's scent was still with hers, but I tried not to pay it much mind. _Perhaps they simply became hunting buddies. Which, if that's the case then I'll have something to thank him or her for._

I strolled casually through the streets of the small town, ignoring the stares and the waves of lust being thrown at me as I followed Kathrin's scent. It first seemed to lead to a small clothing store, but a newer trail picked up leaving the store. _She went shopping? Ok… I wasn't under the impression that she had any money on her, but whatever. _I followed after the newer trail at a bit of a brisk walk.

As a neared what appeared to be a park, I heard a gunshot go off not too far away. I held my breath the second I caught the scent of the freshly spilled blood, not wanting to be deterred from my goal by the temptation of an easy meal. Then, I heard her. _SOMEBODY CALL AN ABULANCE! _It was strange though; as perfectly clear as I had heard her shout, I could have _sworn_ that I didn't actually hear it with my ears. That was rather… bizarre, to say the least. I followed after her trail more urgently now, figuring that she might be trying to get away from town as quickly as possible if she planned on keeping her "vegetarian" ways. The second I was out of line of human sight I took off at a full sprint.

I slowed down once I heard two voices. One was Kathrin's and the other was distinctly male. Another pang of jealously stabbed through me as I approached. The two were so entirely engrossed in their private conversation that they failed to even notice my presence yet. I didn't like what I was seeing. One minute Kathrin was radiating grief and regret, and the next they were both overflowing with affection and what I supposed what the start of love. I grew more heated with each passing second, and when they leaned in to kiss that was the final straw. I cleared my throat, loudly, to make my presence known.

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Jacques' POV

I looked up when Kathrin turned around to see that another vampire was now with us. The phrase "If looks could kill" came to mind as he stared daggers at the two of us. _Jealous ex-boyfriend or something? _I half-way wondered to myself.

"_No!_" Kathrin replied firmly in answer to my unasked question. She turned a glare of her own onto the stranger. "What do you want _now_, Jack-ass?" Even if I hadn't still had my hand on her skin at the moment her extreme dislike for this man was quite apparent. _That's an understatement,_ she quipped telepathically.

"What do I want?!" he replied incredulously, a look of fury still on his face. "You know _exactly_ what I want! I only _poured_ my soul to you this morning! I thought you were better than this!"

Mild guilt from Kathrin, but still mostly anger. She let out a low snarl at his accusations. "Oh, so does that mean that I'm supposed to come _running _to you now? Do you automatically have some kind of _claim_ over me simply because you changed me?" Ah, that explained the anger. On both parties. I was sure that if I were to touch this stranger right now that he would mainly be feeling jealousy.

The other vampire seemed to be too frustrated to form back a proper reply. I felt a small pang of guilt and sympathy come from Kathrin as she heard whatever was going on in his head. "That still doesn't justify what you did," she replied quietly.

He looked up at her in confusion, having not actually said anything yet. "Do you read minds or something?"

"Yes."

Another frustrated look. "Then why…?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Just because I forgave you doesn't mean I have to start liking you." She turned to face me and grabbed my hand. "Come on, Jacques. Let's get out of here."

The other vampire's mouth fell open and his expression become furious once more. "_Jacques_?! What kind of _sick _joke is that?"

Kathrin cringed ever so slightly before flashing him a wry smile. "Coincidence, I assure you." _Ok, let's get out of here before Jack explodes._

I gave the slightest of nods before we took off once more, leaving behind a very furious "Jack". At least I finally knew why she had almost laughed when I first told her my name. _Oh, you don't know the half of it. Wanna hear something even weirder?_

_Sure, go for it._

_He's an empath as well._

In spite of myself I felt my jaw slacken a bit in surprise. "Really now? That's quite something." _You're going to have to tell me more about yourself later. _Kathrin smiled and gave a short nod in response. _So, where are we headed exactly?_

She grinned before answering me. _How do you feel about going for a swim?_

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Review please! (Again, any comments or ideas for the direction of this story are more than welcomed, lol.)


	11. Chapter 11

I would once again like to contribute a GIANT thanks to Katie for helping me work through this chapter. She really is a blessing. Also a thanks to my Jill for giving me a few good ideas.

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Kathrin's POV

"Swimming?" Jacques replied with a bemused expression as we tore across Canada. I didn't hear Jack's thoughts anywhere behind us, but I wanted to keep running just for distance's sake.

I laughed lightly at his confusion, deciding to clarify. "I've always wanted to visit Asia," I said, a smile crossing my face. "Would you like to come with me?" Of course if he _didn't_ want to go then I wouldn't either. I wasn't about to tell him that though and pressure him into it.

"Hmm…" He stared ahead in a speculative manner for a few seconds as we ran. "Sure. Sounds fun. One of our coven members is actually living in Japan right now you want to stop there first."

"Perfect," I said with a grin. That was a serious understatement.

Another advantage to traveling by sea was that it would be impossible for anyone to follow our trail. It didn't take very long for us to reach the Pacific Ocean. "So, is shark blood very appetizing?" I asked jokingly as we stared out at the great expanse of water before us.

"I guess we'll just have to find out," Jacques said with a soft chuckle. "First we need to get our bearing straight though. If we just swim straight west then we'll hit Russia instead of Japan."

"Eh, I'm guessing that we'll probably need to swim about fifteen degrees south of west," I replied, looking over the ocean with scrutiny. "In any case, if we miss Japan then we can just get directions there from wherever we end up."

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Jacques' POV

"True," I replied with a nod, glancing up at the sun to decide just which way that might be. _Hmm, we'll definitely need new clothes once we arrive. Good thing my wallet is completely waterproof. _"Well, I'm ready when you are." Kathrin nodded in response. With that we dove off into the ocean.

The Pacific's frigid waters didn't affect us much, seeing as we were just about as cool as they. We easily battled our way through swells and ocean currents that would have been far too powerful for any human to overtake. Yet, we still had quite a long distance to go. That being said, I decided to start up some conversation with Kathrin. _So, what's the full story behind that Jack fellow anyway? I got that he changed you, but that's pretty much it._

Kathrin grimaced before responding. _Yes, well, that he did. Apparently for about the last year of my life as a human he had been stalking me. While doing so he started to have feelings for me, so he decided to change me._

Now _I_ grimaced. _So, he ended your human life so you could be together and he didn't even care that you might not want this life or ever feel the same way?_

_Basically._

_Well, I suppose your anger towards him is quite well founded then. But, may I ask why I detected small twinges of guilt? That rather confuses me._

Kathrin sighed inwardly while I waited patiently for her to respond. _I guess it's because even though I'm not an empath like you guys I still know how he feels about me through his thoughts. I just feel a little guilty causing him such anguish even though he far from deserves any of my pity._

_I see… _I replied thoughtfully, processing all of this new information in my mind.

About that time Kathrin decided to ask me more questions about myself. _So, Jacques, just how old are you anyway?_

_Well, let's see, I was born July 17, 1770, so I guess that would make me about… 238 years old. _

_Dang!! And you still have an accent after all of these years?_

_Well, not really. I can drop the accent if you would prefer._

_No no. Accent's good. Just wondering._

I had to fight not to laugh at that. While we didn't need to breathe to survive, having your lungs full of water still wouldn't exactly be a pleasant experience. Katie looked over at me as we swam and simply smiled. _So, um, how old were you when you were bitten anyway? _She asked curiously.

_Well, I was 18 when I was bitten, but I turned 19 before the change was complete. So, as far as my "age" goes it depends on your perspective._

_You were bitten before your birthday? Well THAT sucks. Hmm, so July of 1789 you became a vampire… Why does that date seem almost familiar…?_

_You may have heard of it in one of your history classes before: July 14, 1789- The Storming of the Bastille._

_Oh yeah! I remember that! Were you involved in that somehow?_

I gave a small shrug while we swam. _Well, sort of. I was part of the crowd. It was the perfect opportunity for the Volturi to pick me out without anyone noticing. Easy enough to pass off as a casualty._

_Hmm. _Kathrin swam along in silence for a moment with a thoughtful expression. _You know, you never did tell me how you escaped the Volturi. What's the story there? If you don't mind me asking._

_No, not at all. _In truth I didn't like thinking too much about my time back in the Volturi if I could help it, but it was a natural question for her to ask. _Well, it turned out that my gift wasn't as useful to them as they would have hoped. So, after a short period of time, they let me free by my own request._

She hesitated briefly before asking me the next question on her mind._ How long?_

… _50 years. _It hurt just to think about it.

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Kathrin's POV

We swam in silence for a while after that, each lost in our own thoughts. Well, sort of. As much as I tried to avoid it, I couldn't help but catch glimpses of his as well. It seemed that during his time in the Volturi he hadn't quite led a vegetarian lifestyle, for which he felt quite guilty I was sure. As bad as hearing a person's dying thoughts would be if I were ever to attack a human, I couldn't imagine feeling their terror would be any better. Terror, pain, sadness, helplessness… Only a few of the things he had felt while holding on to his prey. His eyes grew cold and dark at the thought. I decided to attempt to lighten things up a bit. _Hey, do you mind if we try hunting for that shark now? I'm feeling a bit thirsty. _

Jacques looked over at me and nodded, a touch of a smile reaching his lips. _Of course I don't mind. If we are lucky we may even come across a small whale._

_That'd be a LOT of blood. Would we even be able to drink that much?_

_Possibly. It just depends on how thirsty we are. Though by "small" I was thinking something more along the lines of like a killer whale._

_Ah, but those are actually in the dolphin family you know._

Jacques chuckled, a few bubbles escaping from his lips as he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. _And so they are. Close enough. _With that said we began our hunt.

It was odd trying to hunt without using your sense of smell. Instead we had to utilize our sharp eyesight and hearing more. Good thing sound travels faster underwater. When I paused to listen I could hear the sound of many small, quick heartbeats up ahead. Probably a school of fish. Near them however were several much LARGER heartbeats. _Jackpot! _I darted off in their direction, Jacques swimming closely behind.

Though I had never tried hunting underwater before it was a lot easier to do than I had thought it would be. Jacques and I each caught ourselves a shark and drained them dry. The blood itself wasn't half bad (though the little bit of salt water that inevitably got mixed in was horrible). After we fed what was left to the remaining sharks (A/N: Can anyone say "cannibalism?"), we looked around trying to get our bearings straight. It being nighttime now didn't seem to help much.

_So… do you happen to remember which way is west? _Jacques asked casually, trying to decide to himself whether to surface or not.

_Nope,_ I replied, just as lost as he was. This was going to be fun…

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Sorry that this chapter took so long to get out. XD; Review please!


	12. Chapter 12

Thanks once again to Katie for some more awesome chapter ideas and help when I was stuck, lol. XD On with the fic!

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Kathrin's POV

_Alright, that's fine. I'll just surface briefly then, _Jacques replied, swimming upward. A few seconds after he broke the surface he came back under and led the way in the right direction.

The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful, and the next day we finally hit land. Anyone who saw us would have probably thought us to be shipwreck survivors from our appearance. (Well, from a ship carrying_ models_ anyway, but that beside the point.) "So, think we are in the right country?" I asked casually, enjoying being able to _breathe_ again, even though it was completely unnecessary.

"No idea," he replied with a shrug. "I suppose we'll just have to find a few locals to be able to tell for sure."

His idea made perfect sense, but that unfortunately meant that I'd have to return to holding my breath very soon. I let out a small sigh at the prospect. "Yeah, alright." I turned my head briefly to look at him for the first time since we came out of the water. "Um, we might have to wait a little while though."

"Why?" he asked, his back to me as he surveyed the landscape. He glanced at me over his shoulder and I saw his mouth form into a small 'o' of understanding. The sun was out. "You know, I don't normally forget something that obvious," he remarked in a joking manner as he turned to face me. His eyes scanned my sparkling skin in admiration while I did the same to him. I hadn't really thought it possible for him to be even _more_ perfect than he already was, but I was proven wrong.

"Wow," I said almost in a whisper, unable to tear my eyes away from the sight. If I had seen him like this as a human it would have been _grossly_ underappreciated. Thank God for my new eyes.

"Wow indeed," Jacques replied in perfect English, his eyes smoldering as he appeared in front of me in a flash. His thoughts would have made me blush if I had been able to. And, while the absence of his accent was a bit odd, his voice had taken on a sexy quality that more than made up for it. "Actually, wow is a serious understatement for how you look right now." I nearly melted at his touch when he lightly cupped my face in his hands. _Shall we pick up where we left off?_

I nodded lightly, too overcome by emotion to do anything else. Our faces closed in towards each other, passion radiating off of us in waves. Our lips were mere centimeters apart when we were once again interrupted. "Oh my gosh, is that you, Jacques?" A light and airy voice inquired. I drew back from Jacques in annoyance to see who was there, already knowing by the quality of her voice and the lack of a heartbeat that it was a fellow vampire.

Would I ever get used to just how striking all vampires seemed to be? Her hair was cut in short but very chic style that framed her face well. The color was a rich auburn and her eyes were bright topaz like our own. She wore a dark red sleeveless tunic blouse with a black undershirt and black denim jeans. Her feet were adorned with a set of black open toed pumps and she looked as if she was only about 16. I knew better than that though.

Jacques, while also annoyed by our interruption, turned to face the red-head with a polite smile. "Ah, Joyce. And here I thought we would have to actually look for you. Good to see you." With the moment of passion at an end his usual French accent had returned. _The girl has a radar on me, I swear! _

I held back a snort at this. I might have been the slightest bit jealous if it weren't for the fact that Joyce's thoughts towards Jacques held nothing past pure friendship. "Jacques, you should know better than that, silly," she replied playfully. "I could sense you before you guys even came into the harbor." _So who's the girl? She looks nice enough. Is it possible that Jacques __finally__ found himself a girlfriend? Oh I can't __wait__ to tease him about this later. _Yes, it was definitely hard to keep from laughing.

"Yes, yes, I should have known." Jacques then took the opportunity to introduce us. "Joyce, this is Kathrin. Kathrin, this is my 'sister', Joyce. She's one of the members of our coven that I was telling you about."

"It's nice to meet you Joyce," I said with a smile, offering my hand.

She quickly accepted it. "It's nice to meet you too, Kathrin." She beamed in a playful manner, truly happy to meet me. "And I'm glad that _Jacques_ has finally found himself such a lovely girl. He's only been around for over two and a half _centuries_ now."

"Ok, Joyce, knock it off," Jacques interjected, quickly growing tired of her ribbing. "Let's find some place a little more sheltered to talk, shall we?" Indeed the sight of the three of us sparkling beings on the beach might just tip off some human that something was up. She nodded happily and led the way, darting off at vampire speed. We followed closely behind.

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"Welcome to my humble abode!"

Humble? This place was anything BUT humble. I didn't know any person living alone in Japan was even _allowed_ to own a house this big. Must have cost a fortune… I was about to step inside when Joyce put out a hand to stop me. "Ah ah! Indoor shoes please," she said, pointing to the several pairs of sandals by the door. I couldn't help but grin as I obliged, leaving my still wet boots outside and putting on a pair of flops.

"Your house is- well- awesome," I complimented, to which she laughed. The overall style of the house was very modern, while still retaining an Asian feel to it. The walls were painted red and black, and the overall color scheme of the furnishings was red, black, and gold. Here and there were touches of white along with a few green plants.

"Yes, Joyce has always had a style of her own with decorating," Jacques remarked with mild amusement as he also changed shoes. "And it seems that she has taken to following a few of the local customs as well. Indoor shoes?"

"Hey, I have to blend in _some_how, right?" she replied in her usual playful manner. "If I could I would eat with chopsticks." The small red-head let out a dramatic sigh. "Shame our diet doesn't quite allow that."

I doubled over with laughter as an image of Joyce trying futilely to scoop up blood with a pair of chopsticks popped into my head. Oh yes, we were going to get along _very_ well…

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Yes, I know my chapters are still pretty short. XD; Sorry. Anyway, please review!


	13. Chapter 13

I would like to once again give my thanks to my few faithful reviewers. As such, I would especially like to thank my friend Katie (eclecticLibra) for her constant help and support. She has a very original story of her own called **The Complication **that I seriously encourage you all to read. Anyway, on with the fic!

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Kathrin's POV

It wasn't very long at all before Joyce and I were the best of friends. She rather quickly invited us to stay with her while we were in Japan, to which we happily agreed. After all, where better to stay in a foreign country than among friends? "We need to get you out of those clothes!" The red head said after a little while, grabbing me by the wrist and dragging me upstairs to her room at super-human speed. I didn't exactly protest, considering the method of travel that we had used to get there. "Hmm… You look to be about my size, so my clothes should be able to fit you," she murmured to herself, looking me over with a scrutinizing gaze. Without warning she snapped up straight with a wide grin spread across her face. "Ok! You just go shower and I'll lay out some new clothes for you to wear!" Before I could even ask where the bathroom was she opened the door next to me and shoved me eagerly into the room. "Don't take too long!" _Slam!_

I stared dumbly at the now closed door for a split second before proceeding to undress and turn on the shower. _She's quite the pistol, isn't she. Almost like a live version of Alice… Ugh, my life has turned into a fantasy book! Well, at least nothing __bad__ is going on right now. Better not jinx myself though. I wonder what Jacques is doing… _I searched the house for his thoughts, but only found those of Ali-Joyce. This worried me slightly and motivated me to hurry up my shower (though the hot water felt rather nice).

When I got out of the shower I quickly dried myself off and wrapped my towel around my body before heading out the door. Or, that was my _intention_ anyway. _Riiiiip! _Perhaps I wrapped it around my body a little _too_ tightly. _DAMN IT! I'm never gunna get used to this insane vampire strength of mine! _I picked up another towel and more carefully wrapped it around myself before opening the bathroom door. On a small table to my right just outside the door sat a neat folded pile of clothes. I picked them up and stepped back into the bathroom once more, closing the door behind me. I didn't even bother to look at the outfit before putting it on, for I had already seen it in Joyce's thoughts as she looked through her wardrobe. She had picked out for me a forest green hooded sweater top along with a pair of dark denim jeans and some tennis shoes. Extremely casual, but that's how I liked it.

"Thank you very much for lending me some clothes," I said gratefully once I found Joyce downstairs in her kitchen (for whatever reason she was there was beyond me). "Um, where's Jacques?" I had already tried reading her mind to find this out, but it didn't work since she hadn't been thinking about him at all.

"Ah, well, he's a _guy_, isn't he? It's not like I had any clothes for him so he had to fend for himself. He's gone off to Tokyo to buy himself some new clothes." She said all of this as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "He'll be back shortly."

"_Tokyo?!_" I croaked out, completely shocked. "Does that mean that we are fairly close by then?"

"Yeah, why?"

"J-Just wondering." _Ah, the Lord is so good to me! _As a human it had long since been a dream of mine to come to Japan, and Tokyo was _definitely_ one of the places I wanted to visit most. Of course, in my current condition would I even be able to go there right now? _So many people… Damn it! T-T Well, at least I'm here! That's definitely a great start!_

Joyce watched me with mild concern regarding my sudden silence. _I wonder what she's thinking about. Perhaps she's wondering how long Jacques will be. I wonder how long those two have known each other for now. I'll have to ask later. Their bond is so strong though! _

I couldn't help but chuckle at this. "What, are _you_ an empath too?" I asked, regarding her thoughts of our bond.

_Well THAT was a rather random question. _"No, but I do have a gift. I can sense and manipulate the relationships between individuals. Also, I can sense where people are- if I've met them anyway; the better I know them then the stronger I can sense where they are."

I blinked in surprise. "Wow. That's quite the gift! So Jacques wasn't kidding when he said you had a radar on him then…"

Joyce laughed at this. "Pretty much. When did he tell you _that_?"

"Well, he didn't actually _tell _me…" I replied, to which Joyce gave me a confused look. "He _thought_ it. See, I'm a telepath." _I can both read minds and communicate telepathically with others._

Joyce's face lit up when she heard me in her head. "Really? That is _so_ cool! What a great gift!"

"Yeah, not really. It gets annoying hearing others thoughts all of the time."

"Ah, you can't control it?" She frowned ever so slightly.

I simply shook my head. "Not _really_. Though I've found that if I try hard enough I can mostly tune out Jacques. Takes a ton of concentration though."

Joyce seemed to find it amusing that I tried to tune out her brother's thoughts. She was about to remark on this when she suddenly paused. Listening to her thoughts, I discovered that Jacques was on his way back. "Awe, you two really _have_ connected well, haven't you?" she teased, noting the smile that had crossed my face without me realizing it. "Kawaii! How long have you two known each other for anyway?"

I laughed nervously before answering. "Um, maybe about two days now…"

Joyce's jaw dropped. "No _way_! Are you serious?!" Suddenly the small red head was hugging me. "That's awesome! I'm so happy for you guys!" I would have been blushing had I been able to.

"Um, thanks? We still don't really _know_ each other that well yet…"

She waved me off dismissively. "That doesn't matter, things will work out fine. I can tell." A playful grin was planted on her perfect face. "You'll learn not to doubt me in time."

The two of us chattered about random things for quite a while after that. It seemed that we really had a lot in common.

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Jacques' POV

I had only been gone for a little over an hour, but when I returned I found both Kathrin and Joyce chattering away like two long lost sisters. I vaguely wondered to myself whether the small red-head's special gift had anything to do with this. "Ah, you're back!" said vampire exclaimed, immediately "glomping" me as she so often called it. (Apparently a "glomp" was a mix between a tackle and a hug. … I never really understood the need for it, but whatever.) "Gosh, what _took_ you so long? You are normally faster than that when it comes to buying clothes."

"Hey, did you forget that I first had to go have my money exchanged for yen? And it wasn't as if I could go shopping at _vampire_ speed. All things considered I think that I did pretty well."

She waved me off as if my excuse was completely flimsy. "Yeah yeah yeah, go shower already. You may be dry but you still smell like the ocean."

"Aw, already? But he just got back!" My eyes darted straight over to Kathrin as soon as the words left her mouth. _Wow, she's so beautiful. _Ever shy, she averted her gaze from me when she heard my thought. "But, uh, yeah, I suppose he should go take a bath. Can't change into new clothes when you're still dirty, right?" I smiled and nodded once before heading off to the bathroom, fresh clothes in hand.

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"So, I have the _greatest_ idea of something we can do for fun!" Joyce started, positively beaming. Kathrin looked both excited and rather hesitant at the same time. It was an odd mixture to say the least.

"Uh, are you sure that's such a good idea? With that many people around I don't think I would be able to trust myself. Plus I'm sure the added adrenaline wouldn't help out either." I quirked an eyebrow at this. _Oh? Just what is this brilliant plan that Kathrin's overheard in Joyce's thoughts…_

Joyce, as usual, waved her off. "Oh it'll be _fine_. You'll have both Jacques and I there to keep you under control. Worst case scenario I'll have Jacques slap a leash on you."

I bit my lip in an attempt to keep the amusement off of my face, but when a mental image of Kathrin with a leash and collar on popped into my head said vampire shot me a glare. _Sorry. Blame my sister for that, not me. _"So, what exactly is this master fun plan of yours, Joyce?"

"We're going to a cosplay party!"

My jaw nearly dropped in shock. "You have _got _to be kidding me," I replied. Only from knowing Joyce for as long as I had did I even know what she was talking about. "I may have to side with Kathrin on this one."

"Oh, but you _know_ it will be fun!" she persisted. I wasn't convinced in the slightest, but Kathrin appeared to be having an inner battle with herself. It seemed that they really _were_ alike in a lot of ways.

"Who would we dress up as?" Kathrin said slowly, seeming to be giving in to the idea little by little. "I mean, do you know of any anime characters with pale skin and yellow eyes?"

Joyce paused to think for a moment. "Hmm… Well, I don't know about pale skin, but in Full Metal Alchemist Edward has golden eyes. Jacques could dress up as him."

"Um, yeah, one main problem with that though: Edward Elric is short." The two of them craned their heads up at me after Kathrin said this.

"… We'll just say he underwent a very late growth spurt." They immediately broke into laughter at this while I stood there completely oblivious as to what the heck they were talking about.

Joyce was the first to recover. "Well, whatever. We don't have to look EXACTLY like the characters you know. We can always get contacts to change our eye color if we need to. The whole thing is for fun anyway, so let's just dress up as whomever we please." With that said they started planning together whom we would dress up as and how they would make the costumes.

_It seems that there's no getting out of this, _I thought to myself with a small sigh. _I just hope for Kathrin's sake that nothing goes wrong…_

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End of chapter! Review if you enjoyed! XD He he. And if not, then review anyway. ;P


	14. Chapter 14

Author's Note: Ok, being that I started this story BEFORE Breaking Dawn came out, there are a few mistakes that I made with my story. For example, Kathrin's eyes already being gold and her current level of self control. I went with my best guesses at the time and it's too late to change anything now, so I'm just gunna go ahead I keep on with things as they currently are. ( Besides, it's a fanfic, right? That gives me a little more leeway. XD; ) Anyway, on with the next chapter!

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Kathrin's POV

Joyce was seriously a miracle worker. It didn't take very long for us to decide who we were all going to go as (she and I went ahead and took the liberty of deciding for Jacques), and now only two days later she had all three costumes ready. "Ok, even taking into account that we don't sleep and that you probably worked in vampire speed I still have _no_ idea how you managed this," I remarked in awe as I looked over my new costume. _Real leather and __everything__! I don't think I've ever seen cosplay look THIS authentic…_

Joyce was amused by my awe. "It's a gift I suppose. Once I set my mind to something there's no stopping me. Besides, what fun would it be to go to a new year's cosplay party without any cosplay?"

Ah yes, new years. In my time since becoming a vampire I hadn't really been paying much attention to the date. After all, it no longer made much of a difference to me as I had been on my own up until just recently. "True. So, how exactly do you plan on getting Jacques into his costume?" Mr. Frenchie still wasn't exactly thrilled with our plan for this evening. Though he didn't voice his disagreement much I could still hear his worried thoughts (along with his lack of enthusiasm for dressing up).

"You don't have to worry about that," Joyce replied, a mischievous grin planted on her face. "He knows better than to refuse. Besides, _I_ know his weak points."

This captured my interest. "Oh? Do tell." I didn't bother to hide the eagerness behind my words.

"Ah, now it's not fair for the two of you to gang up on me like that," Jacques interjected, leaning casually against the door frame. "After all, I'm the only guy in the house right now. How am I supposed to properly defend myself?"

I knew Jacques had been listening in on our conversation from his thoughts, but I hadn't realized that he was so close to our room. "Easy, just sweep us off our feet with your boyish charm."

"Ah, but now that wouldn't be fair to _you_ ladies."

I laughed and Joyce simply rolled her eyes. "_Please _Jacques. 'Boyish charm'? I'd like to see you _try_ to pull that off."

Before either of us could blink Jacques appeared directly in front of the red head, their bodies extremely close. Eyes smoldering, he gently tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear while softly muttering something in French, which managed to elicit a shocked gasp from Joyce. She quickly pulled away and muttered "show off" under her breath while Jacques grinned in victory. I couldn't help but laugh.

"So what are you up here for anyway? I'm guessing it's not to try on your costume."

"You guessed correctly. I'm here to take Kathrin out hunting before tonight's events." _If we're going to be in such close proximity with a large group of humans we have to at __least__ take __some__ precautions…_

"Alright, just don't stay out too long! It shouldn't be too hard to straighten Kathrin's hair, but we've got a LOT of work to do on yours." _I hope I bought enough hair gel…_

Jacques groaned and I giggled quietly to myself as I followed him out of the room. I almost felt sorry for the guy… Almost.

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"Is it possible for a vampire to get sick from too much blood?" I asked Jacques as we ran back to the house. I honestly couldn't ever remember drinking so much in one hunt during my entire vampiric life thus far.

Jacques responding laugh made my dead heart feel alive at the sound. "I'm not sure. I've never tried personally. On a side note I must say that your eyes are the most brilliant shade of gold that I've ever seen."

I turned my face away and murmured back a thank you, the ghost of a blush rising to my cheeks. Hey, I had more than enough blood in me now for a full one anyway, so this didn't exactly surprise me. Jacques said something sweetly to me in French, to which I responded by looking at him questioningly.

"Ah, don't pretend that you didn't understand that," he said with a small smile.

"But, I didn't. I don't know any French."

"None?"

"Maybe like three words, but that's about it."

"If that's true, then how is it that you can understand my thoughts?"

I stopped in my tracks at his question and he had to double back to where I was. "What do you mean by that?" I asked slowly, thoroughly confused.

Jacques returned the confused look. "I mostly think in French. Since you seemed to understand me I simply figured that you knew the language and just didn't like to speak it. You never noticed?"

Now that he mentioned it, it _did _register somewhere in the back of my mind that Jacques' thoughts had always sounded a bit off to me, I just never really paid it much attention. Perhaps this explained why it was easier for me to block out Jacques' thoughts than to block out others. "So, basically my mind reading ability has a built in translator…" I concluded, turning this over in my mind thoughtfully. "In that case, perhaps it will be even easier for me to learn new languages than I thought."

Jacques laughed and shook his head. "Come on, let's get back to the house before Joyce can kill us for taking so long. After all, she knows we've stopped." I nodded in agreement before we both dashed off again. Tonight was definitely going to be interesting.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Jacques' POV

As I had anticipated, Joyce wasn't too happy with how late we were. "What TOOK you guys so long?!" she exclaimed, dragging us into the house. The little red-head was already completely dressed, and she had died her hair black to match. (With temporary color I assumed.) "You know we only have an _hour_ for the two of you to get ready?! Vampire speed can work miracles, yes, but Jacques' hair is going to take a LOT of work!"

_She sure can be bossy when she wants to be. _I saw Kathrin bite back a smirk at my thought.

"Kathrin! Go ahead and get dressed and I'll be over to help you straighten you hair in minute. Jacques, I left instructions in your room for what order to put on the layering of your outfit. I'll get to work on your hair after I finish with Kathrin. Now MOVE you two!" My jaw slackened slightly when she said that my outfit came with instructions, but I quickly recovered.

"Yes, Maam!" I cried in a mock salute, quickly dashing off to my room before my adopted sister could hit me. (She packed quite the punch for her size!)

Forty-five minutes later, the three of us stood in the front room, dressed and ready to go. I felt utterly ridiculous. "So, who exactly is it that we are dressed up as anyway?"

Before actually answering, Joyce grabbed Kathrin and I by the arm and turned us to face each other. "Cloud Strife, meet Tifa Lockhart! Your childhood friend and crush. And, after you finish saving the world, hopefully your girlfriend." Kathrin chuckled at this while I merely rolled my eyes.

"I guess that explains this giant sword. And you are?"

"_I_ am the great ninja Yuffie!" she exclaimed, striking a pose with her over-sized shuriken.

"I see." In actuality, I didn't. It wasn't as if I had ever seen or heard of these people before. Kathrin seemed to be enjoying herself though, so I kept quiet for her sake. "_Tifa_, where's _your_ oversized weapon?" I asked, an amused smile making its way onto my face.

Kathrin grinned. "Don't got one. Tifa fights with her hands and feet." She balled her gloved hands into fists before standing in an attack stance.

"Ok, enough talk! We have to put on the final touches!" Joyce interrupted, handing each of us a small box.

I looked the box over briefly. "Contacts?"

"Well _yeah_! Cloud has blue mako rimmed eyes, and Tifa and Yuffie both have dark eyes!"

"Mako?"

"Don't ask," Kathrin replied with a laugh.

By this point Joyce was practically pushing us out the door. "Ok, ok, let's _go_ already! Talk along the way!"

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kathrin's POV

Wow. There were a LOT of people here. Granted, I had already anticipated this in my head, but it was different to actually _see_ it. Well, as well as I could see through these contacts anyway. The accelerated thrum of the hundreds of heartbeats around me ignited a rather painful burning sensation in the back of my throat. Even with all that I had earlier drank my thirst seemed to be rekindled. Yet, at the same time, I still felt that if I drank even another drop of blood that I would literally pop. Not a fun mix. However, at least the earlier hunt seemed to be doing its job, and that was a good thing.

To accompany the giant crowd of people was a barrage of thoughts thronging through my head. And, sure enough, I could understand them, even though there was no way in the world they were actually thinking in English. Next to me I could hear Joyce's excited thoughts as she scanned the crowd and admired the different cosplay. On my other side I could hear Jacques' thoughts filled with concern for me. _I'm doing fine, _I told him silently, turning to face him and smiling. _This looks like it will be quite fun!_

It was truly amazing how even in a crowd this thick our appearances managed to draw attention to us. Then again, there were probably two really good reasons for this to happen more here than usual: 1) We were foreigners, which drew attention to us in of itself. 2) We really DID look just like the characters we were dressed as, only much more attractive. A large group of boys started to gather around Joyce and I while Jacques was flocked by the girls. I simply kept repeating the phrase "Wakarimasen (I don't understand)," to everyone who addressed me. Each breath felt I took only served to stoke the fire that raged in my throat, so I ended up just giving up on talking altogether and letting Joyce dispel the boys for _both_ of us. Meanwhile I listened in both mild awe and annoyance and Jacques futilely tried to get rid of the large group of girls around him in perfect Japanese. (It seemed that the women in this crowd were much more persistent. That or Joyce was just better at getting rid of people.) _So, remind me again why you don't put that much effort into articulation for English again?_

_I've never really cared for English much as a language, so I tend to be lazy when speaking it. _

_Ah, I see._

_How are you holding up?_

_I've been better. Though, if you don't get rid of that gaggle of girls around you soon then I might accidentally "slip up"._

Jacques chuckled at my jealousy and managed to force his way back over to my side, much to the disappointment of his followers. His arm snaked its way across my shoulders as he leaned in close to me. "Is this better?" he breathed seductively in my ear.

I nearly let out a gasp as I felt a strong wave of lust pass through my body. I was confused for less than half a second before I put together that Jacques had his hand on me along with a devilish grin on his face. I smacked his arm lightly in response (for any harder would have been too loud). "Hey, don't mess with my emotions!"

He laughed. "You know you liked it."

"Did not!" Ok, so maybe I _did_ like it a little, but I wasn't about to admit that to him.

He smirked, knowing better. Stupid empath. "You're lying." I shrugged his arm off at this point, mock indignant.

Joyce pushed her way back through the crowd to where we were. (When had she even left?) "Hey, guys! Come over this way! They have a stand selling vampire stuff."

I snickered and Jacques arched an eyebrow. "And this should interest us because…?"

"Oh come on, you _know _that they come up with some pretty funny stuff. We can buy ourselves some plastic fangs, just for kicks."

Now he was rolling his eyes. "Won't that clash with these outfits you've put us in?"

"Didn't say we had to wear them _now_. We can save them for later." She grabbed both of us by the wrist and pulled us along. "Stop being such a party pooper, Jacques! I mean I know you're technically old enough to fart dust, but _still!_"

I completely lost it at this point. Peals of laughter erupted from my chest and venom pooled in my eyes, threatening to spill over. Many people were thinking that I was slightly off-balanced at this point, but I didn't really care. "Fart- dust!" I rasped, gasping for unnecessary air. Jacques rolled his eyes again while Joyce giggled along, more amused by my reaction than her own joke.

The night continued on much in this same manner, with Joyce dragging us here and there while we continued on with random banter. My throat was still hurting like hell, but I was having too much fun to really care much at this point. Besides, it was also quite fun taking in all of the different costumes. I think I saw people from just about every series and game that I knew plus a whole lot more. As alive as things were throughout the evening however, things _really_ started to pick up as midnight drew near.

"Hey, you guys, I'll be back shortly, ok?" Joyce said before skipping off gracefully through the crowd. I knew what she was _really_ up to though, even if she had tried not to think about it. _Alone time for midnight, eh? Well, I can't say that I don't appreciate it. _I momentarily reflected on the past two times that Jacques and I had tried to kiss. We had come _so _close both times. It almost hurt to think about it.

Jacques gently placed a hand on my shoulder again after Joyce was out of sight, pulling me out of my train of thought. "_Tifa, _do you mind coming with me for a moment?"

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Well, I had to cut it off SOMEWHERE, right? Lol. Once again I would like to recommend eclecticLibra's story **The Complication **to everyone. She is a truly gifted writer, and it is a beyond awesome story. (Mine pales in comparison.)

On another note, PLEASE review! I know people are reading this! Just give me SOME kind of feedback. It makes it a lot easier to continue the story when you do. (Thanks again to Katie for her awesome reviewing faithfulness.)


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Kathrin's POV

Jacques led me through the crowd and to the outside. We got a few curious gazes mingled in with the usual, but I wasn't paying them any mind. I was _far_ more interested in whatever it was Jacques was trying to hide by listening to music in his head.

"So, what is it?" I finally asked once we were by ourselves. I had to admit, it was a bit of a relief to be away from the crowd, even if could still hear and smell them perfectly from where we were.

"Oh, nothing really." He slipped his arms around my waist and pulled me close to him. "I just wanted to have you all to myself for midnight."

Although I knew perfectly well how he felt about me by this point, this still came as somewhat of a shock to me. As a human I had never before been in a relationship that moved anywhere _near_ this fast, so this was an entirely new experience for me on so many levels. _Perhaps our speed slips into more aspects of our lives than just physical movement…_

"There's no need to be so nervous." His smooth voice snapped me out of my reverie, and I cast my gaze up into his face. He was so completely perfect.

"Ah, gomen," I replied back, though still feeling a bit on edge.

_Gomen? _Jacques chuckled at my sudden use of Japanese. "No need to apologize." A wave of calm passed through me and I was able to relax into his hold. Perhaps his gift wasn't so bad after all.

As I laid my head on his chest, I heard the chattering from the party begin to pick up. "I think the countdown is starting," I murmured, recognizing the numbers. _Ni ju san, ni ju ni, ni ju ichi…_

"And so it is," Jacques replied, lifting my chin up with his hand so we could lock gazes again. "Quinze, quatorze, treize-"

"Doce, once, diez, nueve-"

"Eight."

"Seven."

"Six." We leaned in closer to each other, our eyes never looking away.

"Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Two."

"On-" I was cut off on the final number as his lips pressed into mine. Fireworks and cheering surrounded us on all sides, but I was completely oblivious to all of this. The only thing that mattered in the world right now was the feel of his lips on mine.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Jacques' POV

The moment was far beyond words. Our lips moved in perfect synchronization, as if they had always been meant to be together. Kathrin's sheer love and happiness poured out of her body and into my own like a fountain, mingling in with my own emotions. I think I may have subconsciously been reflecting all of this back at her too, for by some unknown reason the emotions continued to intensify as the kiss went on.

It seemed that we had both reached emotional overload at the same time, for in the same instant we both broke away, gasping for breath in an attempt to calm ourselves. "Wow…" Kathrin breathed after a moment. I chuckled. _Understatement of the century…_

_You know, that mirroring thing you were doing can be pretty dangerous._

Ah, so I _was_ reflecting the emotions. Oops. _Sorry._

Kathrin smirked and wrapped her arms back around my neck. "Don't be. I liked it." We were about to kiss again when Joyce came bounding over towards us. Damn her timing!

"Happy New Year!" she exclaimed cheerfully, handing us each a streamer. "Whoa, did you guys go and get married while I was gone our something?" Ah, yes, relationship sensor. I could understand where the fast change would be confusing.

"No," Kathrin replied, embarrassed by Joyce's question. (I hadn't let go of her yet, so I could still sense her emotions.) "Where did you disappear off to anyway?" Changing the subject. Nice evasive maneuver.

Joyce waved her streamer around in response. "Getting these streamers of course! I also got an extra little surprise for later since Jacques was being such a killjoy earlier."

Kathrin giggled. "Ah, you got them. Nice! I like your idea."

I arched an eyebrow, glancing back and forth between the two. "Should I be worried?"

"Nope!" they replied in unison. _Yeah… THAT'S not gunna worry me.._

Karthrin laughed before punching me playfully in the arm. "Just relax, it's nothing major."

"Ok you two lovebirds, let's get back to the party," Joyce said as I rubbed my arm, pretending to be hurt. "A lot of the humans are drunk now and it's pretty fun to watch."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kathrin's POV

We stayed at the party for about another hour before deciding to leave. After all, it would have been rather suspicious if we didn't at least _pretend_ to feel tired at that point, right? Though I didn't really want to leave, it was a bit of a relief for me at the same time- physically at least. I caught a small rabbit on the way home to calm down the raging fire that was in my throat. (It seemed to work fairly well. Nothing quite like fresh blood.) The burning had been so intense the entire night that had I not hunted to the point of nearly being ill prior to the party I don't think I would have been able to hold myself back at all.

It didn't take very long for the three of us to make it back to Joyce's house and change out of our costumes. Although I had really liked my outfit, it _did_ feel a lot better to be wearing casual clothes again. Especially for Jacques. I had to chuckle at his thoughts as he changed out of his clothes and tried to wash the pounds of hair gel out of his hair. Joyce was having small exasperations with the black dye in her own hair as well, but there was truly no comparison. Poor Jacques. Once the two of them were finished we all sat around the living room, relaxing and chatting about the night's events until daybreak.

After a glance at the clock, Joyce suddenly stood up off of the couch. "Well, I guess I had better go get ready for work."

I was mildly surprised by this proclamation as she disappeared off into her room to change (yet again). "Work?" I inquired at normal volume. "You look hardly old enough to pass for a sophomore! What kind of work could you _possibly_ do?"

I heard her giggle from up in her room at my inquiry. "I have my own match-making service."

_Match-making service? _I hadn't even thought about her being in such a thing. It made perfect sense considering the nature of her gift, but at the same time it almost seemed like cheating.

Jacques' thoughts were running along a similar line to my own. _She's doing that __again__? Honestly, it's a miracle that she's managed to keep herself so hidden with her 100 success rate and all. _"You've decided to start that up _here_ too? Honestly, it's amazing that there are even any unhappy couples in the world anymore."

"_Those_ people obviously aren't my clients," the small red-head retorted as she emerged from her room. She was now sporting a sharp looking grey suit, and she had also changed her make-up to make her look a bit older. Now she was able to successfully pass for about twenty two or so.

"How do you _do_ that?" I asked incredulously as I took in her matured appearance. She picked up what I assumed to be her work bag- completely ignoring my question- and made for the front door.

"You two behave while I'm gone, kay?" she said in her usual playful tone as she switched out her house shoes for a pair of dark red heels that matched her hair rather well. "I don't want to come back and find any broken furniture later." With that she shut the door behind her and dashed off towards the city.

As I tracked Joyce's quickly retreating thoughts Jacques scooted closer to me on the couch and slid his arm across my shoulder, quickly bringing my attention fully back to him. "So, are you planning on warning me about what devious plan my sister has concocted for us?" he murmured sweetly into my ear. Before I could even ask what the heck he was talking about, I caught a glimpse in his mind of our earlier conversation with the red head just after midnight.

I couldn't help but giggle. "_Devious_? Don't you think that you're worrying about this a little too much?"

He paused thoughtfully before lightly turning my face towards him with one hand so that we were staring into each other's eyes. "Kathrin, you've _been _inside Joyce's mind," he said in all seriousness. "Surely you of all people should know what she is capable of."

Actually, he kind of had a point. Much of the time when Joyce was bored I saw her plotting various schemes for entertainment in her mind- most of which somehow revolved around Jacques being pranked. (He seemed to be a good source of entertainment to her.) While she had yet to actually execute any of these plans in my presence, I didn't doubt that she had pulled many on him in the past. "You don't need to worry. If it was anything bad I would tell you."

Jacques didn't respond verbally, but in his mind I heard a worried thought of, _Not if you were in on it._

I almost caved in at this point. Almost. "Seriously, it's _nothing_. Just something stupid that she thinks will be funny. And I kind of agree."

"Yappari." (1)

"_Not_ involving a joke on you," I clarified, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. (After all, that would entail taking my eyes off of _him_, which, in our current position, I would rather not. I was enjoying the closeness far more than I should.)

"Oh. Well, if you insist." He leaned in to give me a small kiss on the lips before moving to pull away. I wouldn't let him though. (Finally! My newborn strength has a perk!) He chuckled warmly at my hold on him (and at my emotions I'm sure) before giving in to my silent demand and continuing the kiss.

This lasted for all of about thirty seconds before I suddenly tensed up. Jacques pulled away and look at me in concerned confusion. "What's wrong?"

I raised a finger to my lip to motion him into silence while I concentrated on something. Having been caught off guard while trying to kiss so many times previously, I had learned to purposely be more aware of the thoughts around me during such moments. Jacques and I were no longer alone, and I recognized the voice of the thoughts that were quickly approaching.

_Jack._

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(1) I knew it, I thought so, as I thought, ect…

Dun dun dun!! Ok, can anyone guess what it was that Joyce went and got earlier? XD (I have an odd sense of humor sometimes.) Other than that, if you people want faster/better updates, then you're going to have to start reviewing more. I _know_ people are reading these chapters (I can see exactly how many and on what chapters), so just leave a review after you read, would ya?!

On a side note though, I've officially started college now, so I'll be a bit slower in getting the chapters up. BUT, that doesn't mean that some reviews won't help inspire me to work on this instead of homework or class work. XD Anyway, please review!


	16. Chapter 16

I would like to thank the few of you who reviewed last chapter. ) I would also like to once more recommend that you read eclecticLibra's story, **The Complication. **It is completely awesome. D Anyway, on with the fic!

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Jack's POV

+A few days previously+

I fell to my knees and curled in on myself in a tortured heap after the two left, clutching my hair in anger and frustration. I could never have imagined that a recent turn of events such as this would ever occur. It seemed like such an impossibility before that I had never once even considered it. Shy, introvert Kathrin about to kiss someone the same day that she met him when she had never before in her life ever kissed a boy. Keywords: "in her life" and "boy". _This can't __possibly__ be happening! How could two people feel such levels of affection towards each other in such a short amount of time?! It doesn't make any sense! And with someone named __Jacques__ of all people! "Coincidence, I assure you." _My confusion and hurt quickly transformed back into rage once more._ Coincidence my ass! I'll kill him! There's no way I'm letting that cheap knock-off take her away from me! Not after all that I've been through! _As much as I was ready to bolt after them right then and there, I held myself back, thinking better of it. I needed to be reasonable about this. _Ok, calm down a little bit. If I tried to kill him right now then Kathrin would undoubtedly fight to protect him, which would make my odds of winning about zero. Plus such an act would only serve to make Kathrin hate me further. _I slammed my fist down on the ground, creating a small crater where it landed. _Damn it all! I should have done things differently from the get-go, but it's far too late now. My fault for letting my emotions get the better of me. I of all people should know better._

In all it took me about half an hour to fully calm myself down. By that point I had already planned out my next move. I would track her down and attempt to have a civilized conversation with her. In private. If we could in the very least be friends then I could wait for her to come to her senses and choose me.

I followed her and _Jacques' _trail westward until it ended at the Pacific Ocean. I stared at the water perplexed for about half a second before understanding dawned on me. _There's only one place in the world across this ocean that she would go and visit. Japan._

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

+New Year's morning+

Ok, so being the _awesome_ tracker that I was (note the sarcasm), I hadn't quite landed in Japan after my swim across the Pacific. That being said, it took me a few days to finally arrive at the island nation and then from there head towards Tokyo. I knew that even if she hadn't actually gone there yet that she eventually would. It was one of the key places she had always wanted to visit in Japan after all.

As luck would have it I eventually picked up Kathrin's familiar cinnamon spice scent after exploring the city for a while. Along with the sickeningly sweet orange and honey smell of her "companion." There was a third vampire's scent mixed in with their's though, which I wasn't expecting. Sharp and fruity, almost like apples and pears. _A third companion? Well, that might just work in my favor. At least if there are others around then there is less of a chance of anything happening. _Or so I thought anyway. I followed the three scents back out of the city and in the direction of the western coast.

ooooooo

I knew I was getting closer not only because of the scent, but also because even from my current distance from them I could feel the love and affection radiating off of them in waves. _I guess I'm too late after all. Especially if I can feel that from __here__. Well, I'm still going to try to talk to her. Hey, Kathrin, can you hear my thoughts from here? I need to talk with you! Alone if you would be so kind. _I was nearly at the house by this point as it was, but if I could get a head start by asking through my head (no pun intended) then that was even better.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kathrin's POV

I let out a low growl as Jack got closer to the house. "Jack," I muttered through clenched teeth, standing up from the couch at human speed.

Jacques looked up at me in concern. _Jack? That vampire from earlier? How the heck did he find us in Japan? He must be some heck of a tracker._

I snorted in spite of myself. "No, he's not actually, he just knows me well. If he was a good tracker than he would have found us sooner than this."

_I heard that you know, _Jack thought to me, having just arrived in the front yard. _Please? Can we just talk? You don't have to worry about me abducting you or anything. You're much too strong for that now._

"He's outside," Jacques announced quietly, even though I already knew of his presence. "Shall we invite him in?"

"It's not our house to invite him _in_ to," I replied with a sigh, heading towards the door. "I'm going to step outside."

Jacques was at my side again in a flash as I bent down to swap out my shoes. _Let me come with you, _he pleaded silently, gently placing his hand on the middle of my back. _I know you can take care of yourself, but I'm not quite sure of this Jack fellow just yet. He seems a little… unstable._

I chuckled at this but shook my head in response. _Sorry, but I think it might be better if I do this alone. He doesn't seem like he's going to be giving up any time soon. _I reached up and gave Jacques a quick peck on the lips before walking outside to greet Jack.

One of the first things that I noticed when I walked outside was how cloudy it was compared to the past few days. _I guess this explains why Joyce could go to work today. I wonder if her clients ever notice that she only sees them in less than perfect weather… _

A light breeze wafted Jack's scent straight into my face, and I turned to see the tall brunette who was waiting patiently for me by the tree line. Since all of our previous encounters hadn't exactly been that friendly, I had never really taken notice in my mind of how good he smelled. _Mmm, mint chocolate… If I was still human I could go for some ice-cream right now. _Once again I was reminded of the reason I was generally so hostile towards this being, and I narrowed my eyes at him ever so slightly, to which he internally flinched. "Well, you wanted to talk? Go ahead," I said in a quite but terse manner.

Jack responded with a wistful smile, fully aware of my current feelings towards him. "Do you mind if we go somewhere a bit more private? I don't wish for our conversation to be overheard."

_Not necessary, _I replied pointedly. _If you really don't want to be overheard then just think at me. It's not like I'm not already hearing your thoughts anyway. _Truthfully the main reason that I didn't appease him by going somewhere more private was because I did not wish to be too far away from Jacques. Not that I was worried for him or myself, I just wanted to stay near him in general.

Jack was rather dissatisfied with my condition, but he didn't object. _Very well then. I guess we'll stay here. _Meanwhile I could tell from Jacques' thoughts that he was listening to us intently at the door, mainly out of worry for me. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at this, but it seemed that I wasn't the only one who noticed this. _Based from the overload of worry, distrust, and curiosity emanating from the house over there, I would guess that your "boyfriend" is listening to us at the door. Anyway, that's part of what I came to talk to you about. Don't you think that you guys are moving just a __bit__ fast? I mean, you haven't even known the guy for a full week yet!_

My eyes narrowed considerably at this, shooting daggers at the red-eyed vamp. _That's not any of your business, Jack. _His words troubled me however, because deep down I knew that he was right. The progress of my relationship with Jacques was so fast that it was almost scary, but at the same time I couldn't imagine things being any other way. It was true what Meyers had said about vampires: any changes we experience are permanent. That didn't particularly help me much in this situation with Jack, and I felt some mild pity towards him.

_You know I'm right, _he replied with a smug smile when he had sensed my disturbance.His smile quickly faded however after my mood had shifted. _Pity__?! _This rallied him up quite a bit, but he fought with himself internally to remain calm. _That'd __better__ not be directed at __me__! Ok, ok, sorry, calming down now. I have some issues with my temper from time to time. Calming down. _He took a deep breath before continuing. _Anyway, perhaps you two should consider slowing things down just a bit._

I crossed my arms, growing mildly annoyed by this conversation. _Is this all you came to talk to me about? Cause if so then I'm going back inside._

"No, wait a second!" he exclaimed as I turned on my heel to head back to the house. I paused and turned my head to face him while he reprimanded himself mentally for appearing weak by shouting out like that. (Pride issues much?) _No, that's not the only thing I wanted to talk with you about. Look, I know you are still mad at me, and for good reason. Nevertheless, I want to try and make it up to you. Can we at least be friends? Or friendly towards each other? _

I studied his thoughts for a moment while I considered his question. As much as he tried to hide it, I could see how much my current feelings towards him actually hurt him. _Damn it! I'm not an empath, but I might as well be! It would be easier to stay mad at him if I couldn't read his thoughts. _

I let out a sigh of defeat. Before I could reply however my head snapped back up to the surrounding trees. Someone else was quickly approaching.

_Hmm, I don't recognize this scent at all. I more interested in seeing who this new visitor is rather than going to work. Smells pretty good whoever it is. Mint and chocolate…_

I smiled in relief when I recognized the voice. Joyce was headed back to the house. Jack turned around a few seconds later as he caught her scent in the wind. _Apples and pears? It must be that other vampire that these two met up with. _It seems that he already recognized her scent from when he was tracking my own.

About this time Jacques came outside as well. "Sorry to interrupt your mostly silent conversation, but seeing that my sister is on her way back I thought that I would step outside." 

The words had barely left his mouth when the little red head suddenly appeared in front of Jack, smiling at him cordially. "Hello!" she greeted in her usual playful manner as she looked him over curiously. "May I help you?" _Hmm, he's pretty cute. Shame about his diet. That can easily be changed though. _I didn't understand what she meant by that, but I would wait until later to ask. Right now I would just watch and see what she was up to.

ooooooooooooooooooo

Jack's POV

I glanced over the smaller vampire once, not very much interested in her. "Sorry, I'm not here to see you," I replied before turning my attention back to Kathrin. _You haven't answered my question you know._

The red head followed my gaze to Kathrin before looking back at me, and a look of understanding came upon her face. "I see…" she muttered quietly, looking over me in a more scrutinizing manner now. It seemed that she had decided on something, for a look of satisfaction came upon her face at the same time that Kathrin's jaw dropped and I felt utter disbelief emanate from her. Blondie was confused for about half a second longer before his emotions mirrored Kathrin's. I took it that the red head was up to something. "Well, you're meeting me anyway. My name is Joyce." Before I could even protest she grabbed my hand to shake it in a friendly manner.

What I experienced next was a rather odd sensation. All of the feelings that I had held so strongly towards Kathrin for all of this time suddenly changed into that of mere friendship. This confused me quite a bit and I couldn't make any sense of it at all, but the attachment didn't seem to disappear altogether. Rather, it was more like it had been… replaced. I looked back down at the female vampire shaking my hand and actually took in her appearance for the first time. She was so utterly beautiful that my jaw almost dropped in surprise. "My name is Jack," I replied, awe evident in my voice. She smiled up at me and giggled, feeling very pleased with herself about something. I heard both Kathrin and Jacques groan underneath their breathe, obviously knowing what was going on, but I didn't exactly care at this point. I just knew that I was finally over my pointless infatuation with Kathrin and now wanting to know a _lot_ more about the little beauty before me.

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Ok, not completely a cliff-hanger or anything, but I decided that this was a good place to end the chapter, lol. Hope that you liked it! Review please!


	17. Chapter 17

Thank you to all of my readers who reviewed! You have no idea how much that helps my self-esteem levels (which in turn makes it easier to write. XD So, more reviewing better writing. It's a win-win situation!) . And, once again, if anyone has any ideas for the direction of this story please share! I have a few vague ideas myself, but nothing's set in stone just yet. D Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Jacque's POV

I let out a small sigh and shook my head. _Honestly, I will never understand my little sister. Out of __all__ of the vampire males that she's ever encountered in her life she decides __he's__ the one she wants? Well, whatever, I can't say I'm not grateful to her. At least he won't be pestering Kathrin anymore. _In an instant I was behind my love and had my arms wrapped around her affectionately. My love? Yes, I supposed that was definitely an accurate description of where our relationship was at right now.

_Jacques, you're making me blush, _Kathrin told me silently, grabbing onto my arms and pulling herself closer into me. _That's a hard thing to do to a vampire._

I chuckled lightly and kissed the top of her head before returning my attention to Joyce and Jack. _Yup, there's no doubt about what she did. Even without touching him I can see it in his eyes. Hmm, that reminds me, there's a small dietary conflict here. _Kathrin nodded ever so slightly, most likely thinking about the exact same thing.

_Yes, this should be interesting indeed._

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xThree Days Laterx

Jack's POV

"How can you _drink_ this stuff?" I asked incredulously, fighting down the urge to gag. My eyes were practically black from thirst, so Joyce had decided to take me out hunting in the surrounding forest. However, even with my severe thirst I was not exactly enjoying my first meal of this new 'diet'. "Remind me again why you don't just drink from humans? I mean this island nation is over-crowded as it is already."

The last few days that I had spent with Joyce had to be among the happiest of my existence. It didn't take me very long to find out what Joyce's ability was, as she told me herself later that 

day. Knowing that, it was easy to deduce what had happened. I didn't care though. In fact, I was actually quite grateful. My efforts with Kathrin had been doomed from the start anyway, so it was a bit of a relief not to be chasing after her anymore. I had a new vampire in my sights now.

My darling red head danced her way to the patch of snow before me and looked up at me with a sweet smile on her face. "Jack," she sang, tenderness exuding from her, "we've had this conversation before, so I'm not going to repeat myself. You know exactly why we shouldn't drink from humans." She reached up to caress the side of my face fondly. "Besides, I think a pair of topaz eyes would suit you quite well." I leaned in automatically to her touch, but just as quickly as she had appeared she was suddenly gone again. I turned around to see her a few meters behind me, grinning playfully. "Finish your hunt. One boar isn't going to do much to satisfy your thirst."

I crinkled my nose in disgust of the reminder of what I just drank, but then a mischievous grin slipped onto my face as I had an idea. "You're right," I replied slowly. "One boar won't do at all." I arched myself into a crouch and let out a playful growl. "_You'll_ do though." I leapt at my "prey", but she evaded me with ease, dodging to my left. Before I knew it Joyce had me pinned in a rather interesting position. After dodging she managed to grab a hold of both of my hands and pin them against my back. Next she leapt lightly atop of me so that she was seated on my still curved upper back with her back to my head while holding onto my hands. I was rather grateful for my vampire strength and balance at this point, for if I were human I would have definitely toppled over.

She worse a teasing smile on her face and she looked over her shoulder at me, and I at her. "Nice try, Jack," she said with a laugh. "But next time don't give your prey so much prior warning."

I couldn't help but chuckle at the glee she was emitting. Joyce let go of my arms and alighted off of my back with ease before returning to her own hunt. As much as I already hated this new meal plan, if it made her happy then I would stick to it. That being said, I set off in search again for some more prey.

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Kathrin's POV

The past few days had proved to be rather interesting. When Jack wasn't stalking you and being a total "emopath", he was actually a pretty nice and easy going guy. He and Joyce hit it off pretty quickly (of course), so Jacques and I had a lot more time to ourselves recently.

At the moment I was sitting alone in Joyce's study, reading through all of the learning Japanese books that I could find. Well, I _was_ alone anyway. I small smile tugged at my lips as I saw the back of me in my mind's eye. Rather than announce his entrance verbally however, Jacques made his way silently behind me and began lightly kissing the side of my neck. "Jaaaacques, I'm trying to study!" I complained, though not really all that upset. I was easily distracted as it was, but having the picture of perfection himself kissing on me didn't help things in the slightest.

"You have all of eternity to study," Jacques murmured against my skin, each kiss lingering and growing more passionate. The scent of his breath nearly overpowered me and I began to feel light-headed. "Besides, we have the house all to ourselves at the moment. Let's make the most of it."

I couldn't say that the thoughts of passion in his mind weren't… _tempting_, but I couldn't risk letting ourselves get too carried away. We both were agreed on the idea that we shouldn't, er, "consummate our relationship" unless we were married. However, with the amount of love and passion that lay behind all of our kisses it would be far too easy to let things go when we were alone like this. "No, Jacques, not now." Although my mind said no, my emotions must have clearly been yelling 'yes', for Jacques made no effort to stop his kisses.

"Yes," he replied, continuing along. I felt my willpower begin to wane as his kisses tenderly trailed their way up my jaw line.

"No." I think Jacques may have started to tamper with my already erotic emotions, but I couldn't be sure because he wasn't consciously thinking about it. Ah, the dangers of loving an empath…

He made his way around the side of the chair and slowly wrapped one arm around my waist, responding with an almost inaudible "yes" as his kisses trailed back downward.

"Nooooo," I replied, all but moaning in pleasure. My will power was fading fast. _Damn it! Why does he have to be so good at this?!_

_Yes. _He gently began to lift me up out of my seat and closer to himself with one arm while he used the other to keep himself balance over the chair.

"_Jacques_!" I cried out desperately. "_No_!"

He pulled back, looking at me both confused and mildly hurt. "But why? You felt like you wanted it."

I let out a sigh before responding. "That's the problem, I _do _want it. I'm just worried that we won't be able to _stop_ it."

"Ah, I see," he replied thoughtfully, mulling this over in his head. He set me back down gently in my chair before standing up straight again. "Alright, I understand. I'll be good then." _For the most part anyways._

I rolled my eyes at this thought. _Honestly, it doesn't matter __what__ species they are. Men are men. _I smiled when I heard two familiar thought voices approaching the house. "It's just as well anyway. Your sister and her boyfriend are almost here."

About a minute later the two mentioned vampires stepped inside of the house. "Hmm, it seems like things were pretty busy here while we were gone," Jack remarked, louder than necessary. He had been able to sense our emotional state not long after entering my thought range and what he found seemed to have amused him greatly.

"I hope none of the furniture is broken," Joyce chimed in, also amused.

I simply rolled my eyes again. "We're in here," I called lazily, returning my attention back to the verb conjugation chart before me.

"Ah, not on my books!" the red head cried out, rushing into the study. I blanched at this and Jacques had to stifle a laugh. "Ok, tell me which ones to burn."

"Nothing _happened_," I replied, mildly annoyed by their teasing.

"Ah, we came back just in time then," Jack remarked as he entered the study as well. _Seriously though, I felt passion galore out there. It's going to be unbearable to live around you two isn't it._

_Hey, don't think that __I__ have things any better off. You may feel the emotions, but I have to see and hear the thoughts. That's a visual I would rather not have thank you very much._

_True. I guess you win there. Congratulations. _

I snorted. _Gee, thanks. _

Jacques leaned back casually against the desk. "So, did you two enjoy your hunt?"

Joyce nodded happily, bouncing a little bit on the balls of her feet. "Yup! I enjoyed it a lot. I'm not too sure about Jack here though."

I turned my head to look at Jack as he screwed up his face in mild disgust. His eyes were still red, but now they had more of an orange tint to them. It would take quite a few hunts before they were the same color as ours. "Animal blood is truly disgusting, but it's better than nothing I suppose." _Eh, golden eyes are over-rated. It's a damn shame I can't sneak in a few good meals now and then though without them being able to tell._

I smirked and was about to comment on this when Joyce's thoughts captured my attention. "Ah, that's tonight?" I replied in mild surprise, to which she nodded. "I didn't think it would be so soon."

Jack and Jacques looked at each other in confusion before turning back to us. "What's tonight?" Jack asked curiously.

Joyce's usual playful grin adorned her face once more. "Oh, you'll see, boys. It'll be fun!"

"Boys? You do realize that we are both older than you, right?" Jacques remarked with a small smile.

"Whatever," she replied, waving him off. "I'm going to go prep the house now. How about you three go out for a while?"

Jack arched an eyebrow at this. _But we just got back… _"Go out where?"

"Anywhere really. Just as long as you guys are back by nine." She held the door to the study open and motioned for us to leave. "Tokyo's closest, so go explore there if you wish."

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Jack's POV

Our day in Tokyo was… interesting, to say the least. It had been cloudy enough for us to walk about in public, but we were rather grateful to the snowy weather regardless. It gave us a legitimate reason to wear gloves and hooded coats. On the downside however, our breath failed to fog up the frigid air outside like a human's would so we still had to be extra careful not to draw extra attention to ourselves.

Kathrin had suffered as usual, but at the same time she was truly excited to be there. I had to chuckle at the amount of happiness and excitement flowing off of her, despite her relatively calm demeanor. Jacques chuckled too, for he was able to feel it every time he touched her. "Stop laughing at me, you two!" she had mock complained. "And don't try to deny it either cause I know what you're thinking!"

It was hard to say which part of the entire experience excited her the most, but visiting the Sony building had to be pretty high up on the list. I was surprised that she wasn't squealing aloud with the amount of glee that she was exuding. I had to smirk at her impatience for having to move at human pace. _You know, I don't know __how__ people can get by moving so slow, _she told us in private. _I was impatient enough with it while I was human, but now it seems almost a million times __worse__!_

I laughed while Jacques simply smiled and shook his head. He must have thought something back to her in private, for she was immediately embarrassed and walked away. _Then_ he laughed.

At this point it was about 8:45 and we were nearly back to the house. What we found when we arrived completely shocked us.

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Sorry that took so long to get out. XD; Review, please!


	18. Chapter 18

I am SO sorry that this chapter took so insanely long to come out. I started college this semester, so between lack of time and the writing center of my brain being sucked dry, I haven't been able to work on this as much as I would have liked to. XD; Thank you all of my faithful readers and reviewers, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer's owns Twilight, not me. I'm just borrowing a few of her ideas. XD

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Kathrin's POV

What we found when we arrived completely shocked us. (Even I was slightly surprised, and I was _in_ on the whole thing.) From the outside of the house everything looked completely normal. The inside however had been transformed into something from a bad horror film. Candlesticks, skulls, cobwebs (how the hell she made THOSE was beyond me), dust, coffins, etc… You name it, it was there.

"Um, Joyce, what did you do…?" Jacques asked slowly from beside me, slightly apprehensive.

"What does it look like I did, silly?" she replied from the other room. I couldn't help but laugh when Joyce came into our view. I could hear thoughts of shock from both Jack and Jacques, and I was able to see their expressions for myself through Joyce's mind. The red-head vampire stood before us dressed like a mini Dracula, complete with a cape and all. She grinned at us, showing off the fact that she was wearing fake, but very realistic looking, fangs.

"Um, Joyce, what exactly are you planning…?" Jacques asked meekly, fearing what she had in store for us. Meanwhile Jack was still too shocked to speak. I didn't completely mind though, because his thoughts were a little too kinky at the moment to be spoken aloud.

"We're having a 'vampire' party tonight," Joyce replied, grinning mischievously. "_Most_ of the guests will be human, but I do have a few vampire friends who are coming as well." _Hmm, I hope they remember to hunt __before__hand…_

By this point Jack had finally recovered the use of his voice. "Isn't this kind of thing normally saved for Halloween?"

"I didn't feel like waiting that long." She skipped her way directly in front of us and grabbed both guys by the hand. "Come on, let's get your guys ready now."

"What?!? No way!" Jack exclaimed at the same time that Jacques said, "You've gotta be kidding me!"

Blatantly ignoring their protests, she proceeded to drag them both to her room upstairs. She even ignored the waves of pity that Jacques futilely tried to instill in her. "Give it up, bro. No amount of pity that you make me feel will get you out of this." _Your stuff is already in your room, Kathrin. I trust that you can dress yourself. Unlike these guys._

I stifled a giggle at the thought of Joyce dressing them and went to my own room to change. Tonight was definitely going to be interesting.

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Jack's POV

"This is ridiculous," Jacques complained, not at all pleased about our current circumstances. I had to admit, I wasn't either, but somehow I just couldn't say no to Joyce. Then again, I don't think we really had a choice in the matter to begin with.

"Oh, quit complaining," she replied, adjusting his cape. "The first of the guests are pulling up in the driveway now." Indeed, I could clearly hear the hum of engines, the sound of tires on gravel, and the chattering of humans as they parked their cars. Good thing Joyce had such a huge yard.

"So, you went back and bought the fangs anyway," Jacques remarked, looking over the plastic mouth-piece in mild disdain. "I should have known that that's what you were up to." I merely sent him a questioning glance as Joyce went to go answer the door.

(A/N: Assume from this point on that all spoken conversations are in Japanese. Kathrin was able to learn enough in the past few days to communicate decently.)

"Hey guys!" she greeted in her usual chipper manner as the guests entered the house. "I'm glad that you could make it! Welcome to the party. There are food and refreshments on that table over there. Meanwhile, make yourselves at home!" I had to admit, it was rather interesting to see a bunch of humans dressed up as what they thought vampires looked like. Although I had always known what the stereotype was, I still found the whole thing rather amusing. _Hmm, I have to say though, with only animal blood tiding me over at the moment, these guys all smell much better than usual. This diet may be harder than I thought._

_Yeah, well get used to it, _Kathrin thought to me as she made some light conversation with a few of the guests. _It doesn't get much easier really. At least not for a while. _

More and more people arrived as time passed, and Joyce played the perfect "vampress" host. She even made Bloody Maries for everyone (as if tomato juice and alcohol could ever compare!). The general mood around us was quite cheerful (although some seemed a little nervous, eying all of the decorations). At about fifteen till ten, a few of _our_ kind finally showed up. Three males and a female.

The three males were pretty much identical with the exception of their haircuts. One had short, spiky hair, the second had medium-length layered hair that reached down to the bottom of his neck, and the third had just straight, shoulder-length hair. With them was a female about Joyce and Kathrin's height with hair that fell to about the middle of her back. What was most striking however was just how similar she looked to the boys. _Are these guys all related or something? They look like siblings, _I wondered to myself.

Kathrin responded to my unspoken question. _I know, right? The guys look like triplets, and the girl like their younger sister. Is that even possible?_

I shrugged my shoulders. _No idea._

Joyce meanwhile was already over next to them and greeting them happily. "Hey! It's about _time_ you guys came!" and then too quickly for the humans to hear she added, "It wouldn't be much of a vampire party without you guys."

"What are we? Chopped liver?" Jacques remarked to Kathrin under his breath.

All of us with vampiric hearing chuckled at this, causing many heads to turn at the musical sound of our voices. It was bad enough feeling the humans' lust levels just from looking at _us_ earlier, but now with the addition of a few new beautiful faces it increased quite a few notches. _If this keeps up I'm going to need some alone time with Joyce real soon._

Kathrin blanched at seeing my thoughts. _Oh gosh, I hate my gift right now._

_You're not the only one. At least Jacques' gift only works on contact. Lucky bastard…_

_I know, it's so not fair. T-T_

"Joyce, it seems that you really outdid yourself this time," the female commented, looking around the house in admiration. "Your parties are always incredible. How on earth did you make the cobwebs?"

"It's a secret," Joyce replied with her signature mischievous grin. "Here, let me introduce you to some people." She took the four over to where Kathrin and Jacques stood while I made my way over to join them. "Ok, this is my brother Jacques, my future sister-in-law Kathrin, and my boyfriend Jack." We all nodded politely (Kathrin ever so slightly embarrassed) as she turned to introduce them to us. "Guys, this is Yuki and her brothers Rai, Akira, and Kiyoshi."

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Jacques' POV

"Nice to meet you," Kathrin greeted with a small bow. I held back a chuckled at how excited she felt, even though she covered it well (my hand was resting on the small of her back).

"Nice to meet you too," Rai, the spiky-haired one replied. "I can see that you guys seem to be sharing Joyce's little 'diet'. Well, except for him," he added, gesturing to Jack. "No idea how or why you even bother, but whatever. To each their own."

"Well, not completely. It looks like Jack here's becoming a convert," Akira, the medium-length haired one remarked, noting the slight orange tint to Jack's eyes. "I'm assuming Joyce wrangled you into it?"

"Perhaps," Jack replied with a wry smile. "I don't mind though. She's worth it."

"Ooo, Joyce, it looks like you got a winner here," Yuki remarked teasingly, elbowing my sister in the side.

"I know, isn't he sweet?"

_Yeah, when he's not stalking the one you love, _I thought dryly, to which I saw Kathrin smirk ever so slightly.

At this point a small gaggle of girls approached us, seeming unable to hold back any longer. "We, um, love your costumes," one remarked shyly, barely meeting our eyes.

"Are you guys all models or something? Cause you're seriously hot," another said, hitting on the triplets. She was obviously a lot more forward than the first. I decided to simply watch the transaction in amusement.

"No," Kiyoshi replied softly, gently shrugging the girl off his arm.

"Oh really?" she replied, pouting a little. "That's too bad. You could make a lot of money that way."

Rai stepped up in front of the forward girl and brushed her cheek softly with the back of his hand, causing her to shudder. "Ah, but if we did that then we would have less time to spend with lovely ladies such as yourselves," he replied in the most seductive voice possible. Several of them squealed while other looked like they were about to faint.

"Rai, no eating the guests!" Joyce said quickly and sharply while keeping a light smile on her face. "And besides, you shouldn't play with your food."

"Hmm, fine," he replied just as quickly before pulling himself away from the group of girls. "Excuse me ladies, I have some business to attend to." With that he wandered off elsewhere into the crowd, still getting plenty of stares. The girls whispered among themselves, their words still plainly audible to us.

_Oh gosh. Jacques, these people's thoughts are atrocious, _Kathrin complained, rubbing her temples as she eyed the crowd in annoyance. _Why did your sister have to invite so many humans?_

_Cause she's just sadistic that way? _I replied jokingly before turning serious. _She's always been one for parties, whether they be with her own kind or not._

"Well, if you all would excuse me, I'll be off to go torment some of the boys," Yuki said mischievously. Then she added in a low voice, "Don't worry, you know I never kill anyone." With that she parted off gracefully into the crowd, heading for a small group of men. When they spotted her, Kathrin let out a groan.

_I hate being a telepath…_

I chuckled lightly and pulled her into a hug. _Don't worry, it'll only be a few more hours. _This didn't do much to comfort her.

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Kathrin's POV

Apart from the overload of thoughts, the ogling, and the insane fire in my throat, the party seemed to be going quite well. Joyce was keeping the guests entertained with some party games that she had come up with, while Jacques and I just sat back and watched. It suddenly occurred to me however that I hadn't seen her vampire friends around in a while. I searched through the various thoughts that bombarded the house, and let out a gasp of surprise when I found my mark. "Joyce!" I whispered urgently from across the room. She glanced my way to show that she was listening, but apart from that continued on with what she was doing. "Your _friends _are preparing to kill one of your guests upstairs!" Jacques looked down at me in alarm before heading up the stairs at a quick human pace while Joyce simply rolled her eyes. _Ah, so they decided to snack anyway, eh? Don't worry; no one's going to die._

_What are you __talking__ about?! _I shouted back telepathically. _I can see them ready to bite some people right now! _

Joyce chuckled lightly. _Just go upstairs and see for yourself. It's far more interesting in person than for me to show you through my memories. _Deciding not to wait any longer, I hurried up the stairs like Jacques had and went into the room where they were hiding.

By the time that I arrived it seemed that they had all finished their "snacks", and as Joyce had said, no one was dead. In fact, the vampires and the humans were conversing freely and lightly, as if nothing had happened. This confused me quite a bit, for with my vampiric eyes I could clearly see healed up bite marks on each of the four humans' necks. However, no one was writhing in agony, dead, or completely freaked out. _What happened in here? _I asked Yuki telepathically, sending her a questioning look. Jacques was just as confused as I was, but had decided to wait until the humans were gone to ask for himself.

Yuki was startled for a second when she heard my voice, for she was unaware that I was a telepath. However, she recovered quickly and answered my question while continuing her previous conversation. _Ah, we were just having a snack to quench our thirst. You see, my brothers and I all have a rather unnatural amount of self-control when it come to how much blood we drink, and I happen to have the very handy ability to manipulate memories. That being said, we can drink blood from humans as often as we want without killing them. And so long as we are careful not to use much venom besides on the flesh wound, they don't get changed either. _

I think the surprise showed on my face, for at this point Jacques started asking me what I found out. I relayed the message to him and a look of wonder came over his face. _Seriously? That's… incredible._

I nodded lightly in agreement. Somehow, even without knowing the triplets' abilities yet, I got the feeling that these four would be quite the force to reckon with.

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Again, sorry for the delay! ^_^; Review please! ^_^


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